Collective, travelling exhibition of contemporary Chinese traditional painting organised in a partnership between the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG), by way of its Exhibitions and Museography Department, which began cultural exchange in the field of visual arts between the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the People’s Republic of China.

In November 1980, the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Portugal confirmed that that the exhibition would come to Portugal at the beginning of the following year. It would be the first time Portugal hosted an exhibition dedicated to Chinese traditional painting that would also provide direct contact for the Portuguese public with art from the East (Letter from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 13 Nov. 1980, Gulbenkian Archives, SEM 00206).

60 pieces by 60 Chinese artists were exhibited in the Temporary Exhibitions Gallery of the Gulbenkian Museum, in an event that was primarily composed of “kakemono” or “hung rolls” of paper or silk, produced after the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The most important painters in the area of Chinese traditional painting stood out at the event, including Chi Pai-Shi (1863-1957), Hsu Bei-Hung (1895-1953) and Guo Ru-Yu (1942). The exhibition space would also include some floral and plant arrangement details.

They were made using a vertical paintbrush, without support, calligraphy connected to nature and spirituality harmonised with plain landscapes, in soft tones, diluted in watery colours, and symbolic animals (like herons, carp, tigers, ...). These and other characteristics and information on techniques were listed in the exhibition catalogue to further inform the public.

As mentioned by art historian and critic José-Augusto França (1922), this exhibition would be “the first news of today’s China in Portuguese galleries”, and demonstrated the strength and naturalness of Chinese painting, concluding that “the convulsions of history could do nothing to stop the continuum of a graphic and pictorial language that has unchanging law” (França, Colóquio. Artes, Mar. 1981, p. 72).

The critic would also note that there were traces of “idyllic propaganda” in the images exhibited, incorporated with a subtle elegance in this calligraphic painting (ibidem).

This reconciliation between Chinese traditional art, the Revolution and the influence of Soviet realism is also acknowledged by the exhibition organisers in the introduction to the catalogue (Pintura Tradicional Chinesa na Actualidade, 1981).

The exhibition catalogue would also present historical context for Chinese traditional painting, marked by its main events and trends and the universal nature of its pictorial and graphic language, as well as a brief summary of the techniques for execution, which could clarify some basic aspects in reading the pieces, which is done from right to left.

Following the exhibition in Lisbon, the exhibition was also shown in Porto, at the Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, with collaboration from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.