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Exhibition shines light on remote Kizil caves
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AN exhibition about the Kizil caves in Xinjiang sheds light on ancient Buddhist culture in Xinjiang Uyger Autonomous Region.
The rock-cut caves near Kizil Township were created between the 3rd and 9th centuries AD. The complex of caves is the largest associated with the ancient Tocharian kingdom of Kucha, as well as the largest in Xinjiang.
Kucha was an ancient Buddhist kingdom with a commercial hub along a branch of the Silk Road. Kucha culture predates Dunhuang culture by about 300 years. Experts believe it heavily influenced Dunhuang culture.
“Kucha was the first stop when Indian culture was being introduced to China, and when Chinese people started accepting culture from western regions. It tells us the history before Dunhuang,” says Wang Zan, deputy director of the China Academy of Art.
The exhibition is free at the China Academy of Art’s gallery and includes photos of the Kizil caves, paintings by artists who studied and stayed in Kizil for three months, including a Polish artist, as well as thangkas made with natural mineral pigments, which don’t fade over time like ink-wash works.
A notable feature of the Kizil murals is the extensive use of blue pigments, including the precious ultramarine pigment derived from lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. Only natural materials like stones, shells and gold were ground into powder to make the pigments.
Some of the works are copies of murals in the Kizil Caves, but many are original pieces depicting the people and culture of Kizil.
Wang Xiongfei, head of the artist team, has his 2-meter-long “Chinese Rhyme” on display The painting combines scenes from grottos around China and copies of murals. He used a natural stone powder pigment and the impasto technique to make the caves and stone Buddha appear as realistic as possible.
Polish artist Borkowski Wiesaw’s “Flying Apsaras and Angel” looks similar to church murals, but upon closer inspection is asparas holding hands with an angel. Behind asparas there are grottos, temples and Buddha. Churches and bell towers stand behind the angel.
Artist Yu Lukui has used metal foil to show the gloss of Snow Mountain in “Jiayu Pass of Great Wall.”
“Chinese painting is not just ink wash black-and-white paintings,” says Wang Xiongfei. “Mineral pigments have been used for a long while in China, but they disappeared about 400 years ago although Japanese artists continued to use them.”
The exhibition coincided with Silk Road Meditations — 2015 International Conference on the Kizil Cave Paintings.
The conference was co-organized by the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou and Xinjiang Kucha Institute. It was first held in Hangzhou before moving to Kizil Township.
While Dunhunag is widely known for its grottos, Kizil cave paintings are highly valued by historians, but their artistic merit should not be underestimated. They have received less attention because Kizil is in a remote part of Xinjiang and the natural environment there is considered “dangerous.”
Silk Road Meditations is believed to be the most comprehensive conference about Kucha culture held in China. Around 100 scholars from 11 countries and areas attended including professors from Harvard and Yale, as well as scholars from the British Museum and Museum of Asian Art in Berlin.
Date: Through October 26
Time: 9am – 4pm
Venue: Gallery of China Academy of Art
Address: 218 Nanshan Road
南山路218号
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