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  • SATKA. UNITING TRADITIONS

A unique exhibition of the Chinese artist, doctoral student at the Moscow State Stroganov Academy of Design and Applied Arts Liu Zi Yu will open in the Magnesite Museum in Satka on January 31. 

“The landscapes of Satka are unforgettable, they make me come back here for the third time. Forests covered in snow, green huts, huge mines and quarries are beautiful like a fairy tale,” Liu Zi Yu said about his impressions of Satka. The artist has already held two workshops on traditional Chinese painting in this small Ural city. 

Chinese painting dates back to more than two thousand years. It developed into a combination of drawing, calligraphy and printing. Chinese paintings are very different from oil paintings of European realism: image is more flat, more attention is paid to the dramatic component, picture may have many focal points. Chinese paintings are often presented in the form of a scroll with a river depicted in all its length and coastal scenery, all in the same plane. This exhibition features many landscapes of Satka created by Liu using Chinese ink painting techniques.

“The view from the piece ‘Satkinskoe Field’ unfolded before my eyes when I first visited this mining site. I stood at the edge of a huge quarry, and trucks with ore at the bottom were of the size of a thumb. This deposit is over 100 years old, and it blew my mind. The distinct roads against the background of white snow were vigorously snaking through the quarry and opened up a broad landscape. Chinese painting focuses on lines, there are more than 18 different types of them. The sinuous lines of the quarry precisely reminded the lines in Chinese painting. I created this piece on the basis of this feeling,” the artist described his emotions. 

In addition, several works of the traditional Chinese huanyao (flowers and birds) genre are on display. To create a painting of this genre, the artist first draws a contour and then adds colors by dissolving it in water. The resulting semi-transparent layer is applied on the canvas. It takes several times, sometimes more than 10, to make an intense color.

Over the past hundred years, Chinese artists have adopted many elements of European tradition and enriched their artistic practices. Most of the works presented in this exhibition are the result of fusion of Chinese and Western painting traditions. 

Liu Zi Yu was born on December 23, 1978. He graduated from the Beijing Art School in 2000 and from the Theatrical Painting Department of the China Media University in in 2004. He worked at the Beijing Normal University from 2010 to 2015. He studied at the Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute at the Russian Academy of Arts from 2015 to 2017.

At the moment, he is a doctoral student at the Moscow State Stroganov Academy of Design.

Liu Zi Yu’s works have been exhibited in China, Korea and Russia.

Photo by Vasily Maksimov and Ksenia Maksimova. Video by Denis Shakirov.