The First Exhibition Planned for 2022
Written in February 2022, ahead of the exhibition announced on the flyer below.
In my 2021 year in review, I mentioned two exhibitions planned for 2022. The first is a group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Beijing, alongside colleagues from Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The flyer announces 9 April to 9 May 2022. I am contributing 16 works painted over the preceding two years.
This is not my first exhibition in Beijing. I exhibited there in the early 1980s, including at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). That exhibition attracted many visitors, especially Chinese artists, some of them well-known. Returning with work made after so many more years of painting means a great deal to me.
The exhibition’s theme is “Honouring 50 Years of Cultural Exchange between Europe and China”. I have been involved in that exchange for decades, while trying to remain independent of any side. I firmly believe that cultural exchange is one of the ways we can build peace and understanding between countries.
I did not design the flyer. It serves its purpose, although I do not find it particularly appealing. My participation would not have been possible without financial support from the Austrian-Chinese Society (ÖGCF), to which I contribute lectures and articles on Chinese art, and the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Austrian Cultural Forum Beijing. I would like to thank them both.
The painting used on the flyer is one I showed in New Abstract Surrealist Ink Paintings:
When I accepted the invitation more than a year ago, I hoped to fly to Beijing and meet old friends and colleagues. With the pandemic still affecting travel in early 2022, that hope now seems unlikely to be fulfilled.
For now, I hope the works will be well received—and that another opportunity to return will come.
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