China Cultural Centre in Sydney and the Australian Watercolour Institute collaborate to organise “Memory, Myth and Metaphor: China – Australia” exhibition, featuring 40 excellent artworks from 10 members of the Australian Watercolour Institute to demonstrate the exchange and mutual influence between the Chinese and Australian painting art. You will find the Chinese art elements, more or less in each painting, which create a dialogue between and Chinese and Australian art.

Master Gu Kaizhi (348-405 AD), a renowned painter from China’s Eastern Jin Dynasty, put forward the concept of “expressing spirit through forms”, laying the foundation of the Chinese painting. The varying lines in Chinese painting – curved or straight, thick or thin, firm or soft, dark or light, slow or rapid—possess strong artistic expressiveness. Since the 17th century, the unique style and techniques of Chinese painting have attracted the attention of Western artists. Chinese ink painting, with its simple lines, flowing brushstrokes, and distinctive composition, has provided new creative inspiration to Western artists. Chinese painting emphasizes the creation of artistic conception, expressing infinite meaning through limited brushstrokes, which has profoundly influenced the development of Western modern art and spurred the emergence of abstract art and expressionism. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as Western artistic thoughts and techniques began to be introduced to China, realistic techniques, perspective principles, and light and shadow processing from the West were applied to traditional Chinese painting. Romanticism, Impressionism, and Abstract Art from the West also inspired Chinese artists to pursue self-expression and innovation. This is the essence of cultural exchange, learning from each other and developing together. We also hope that this exhibition will provide an excellent platform for dialogue between Chinese and Australian artists and promote the artistic exchange and cooperation between China and Australia.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Mr David van Nunen OAM, President of the Australian Watercolour Institute, for curating this exhibition. It is his profound artistic accomplishments and broad artistic vision that made this exhibition possible.

I wish the exhibition a complete success!

Liu Dong

Director

China Cultural Centre in Sydney