July 07, 2020

Chinese Artist's Gift to the Hermitage


Chinese Artist's Gift to the Hermitage
The Hermitage has works from all over the world. Image by Dennis Jarvis via Wikimedia Commons

The Hermitage is well-known for exciting projects and having art from all over the world. A new piece will soon enter its collection from the famous Chinese artist Zhang Huan. He was inspired by his trip to the Hermitage, and created a series of 26 paintings about the pandemic that he dedicated to the museum for an exhibit titled “In the Ashes of History,” which includes pieces such as “My Hermitage,” “The Revolution of Rebirth,” “The Buddha of the Hermitage,” and “Palace of 10,000 Souls.”

Huan said he was inspired by the famous Russian artist Ilya Repin. “The Hermitage is one of the four greatest museums in the world… I remember that, on my first day in St. Petersburg, I woke up very early due to the change in time zones, left the hotel, and immediately went off to look for the Hermitage. I reached the Neva, caught the sunrise from the bridge over the river, and watched the Winter Palace gradually appear in front of my eyes,” the artist recalled.

The exhibition was originally planned for this spring, but has been moved to the second part of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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