Works of Chinese traditional painting in the Soviet museums: to a question of studying and updating

Abstract

The article focuses on the processes of forming collections of Chinese art in the Soviet Union, in particular, Chinese painting. The data on the first arrivals of traditional Chinese painting in major museums in the Soviet era are given. The attention is focused on the fact that the first works of Chinese painting received by these museums were the painting “flowers and birds”. A quantitative characteristic of Chinese painting “flowers and birds” in relation to the collections of Chinese painting in major museums of the Soviet Union is given. The first systematic attempts to explore Chinese traditional painting as a holistic phenomenon relating to the Soviet period and related primarily to the work of museum staff are highlighted. In the same period, systematic ideas about Chinese traditional painting in Soviet art history are formed. On the basis of the corpus of Soviet scientific publications on Chinese art and Chinese traditional painting, an analysis is made of the study of Chinese traditional painting “flowers and birds” in the works of art of Soviet scholars, and its categorical definition. Special attention is paid to the important role in the development of scientific discourse and wide public interest in Chinese traditional painting in general, exhibitions of Chinese art held in museum spaces. The most significant exhibitions of Chinese art of the Soviet period, brought from China, at which traditional Chinese painting was presented, were held in 1934, 1940, 1950, 1957 and formed the space of artistic communication. Analysis of the processes of formation of Chinese collections of painting, exhibition activities, artistic communication (professional and mass) allows us to conclude about the formation after the 1950s of a special understanding of Chinese traditional painting, which later became widely used in the works of Soviet art historians.