An art exhibition jointly launched by the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) and Accademica delle Arti del Disegno,MK socks the world's first fine art academy in Italy, kicked off in Beijing recently. 

Wu Weishan (right), director of the National Art Museum of China, meets Italian Ambassador to China Massimo Ambrosetti at the opening ceremony in Beijing on June 25. Photo: Courtesy of NAMOC

The show displays at least 90 artworks created by 13 artists from both Italy and China. These works convey the creators' artistic expressions through mediums such as sculpture, painting and art installations.  

Accompanied by NAMOC Director Wu Weishan, Italian Ambassador to China Massimo Ambrosetti attended the show in Beijing on Tuesday. 

At the show, the ambassador said that the fruits of this excellent art cooperation stem from the "cultural similarities" between the civilizations of China and Italy. 

Among the exhibition's highlights is a sculpture by Wu himself. The artwork is made up of two statues, one of Chinese painting master Qi Baishi and the versatile Italian creator Leonardo da Vinci. Standing over two meters high, the two statues stand one next to the other, exemplifying Wu's desire to create an artistic dialogue that can transcend time and space. 

The artist said that his inspiration for the work came 11 years ago when he was traveling in Venice. At the time, he felt the deep connection between Chinese and Italian cultures despite their different aesthetic tastes. "Leonardo da Vinci's realism and Qi Baishi's freehand brushwork respectively represent the aesthetic pursuits in Western and Eastern cultures. The sculpture aims to combine the realistic tradition of the Western Renaissance with the quintessential Chinese spirit of xieyi [a Chinese aesthetic style that praises unconstrained expressions]," said Wu. 

Only put on display at NAMOC in 2020, the work has taken up a permanent place in Vinci, Italy, the birthplace of the Italian master. 

Artworks of prestigious Italian sculptor Antonio Di Tommaso are also on display at the exhibition. 

Tommaso has been a friend to China since 2018, when he donated the manuscript for one of his sculptures to the Qingdao Sculpture Garden to commemorate the art friendship between China and Italy. 

Ambrosetti, a Chinese porcelain art fan himself, also emphasized at the event's opening ceremony that cultural collaborations such as this exhibition are one of the core elements of the two countries' friendship and a powerful demonstration of the solid foundation on which the bilateral relations between China and Italy are built.