To celebrate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a new art exhibit was unveiled at the Chinese Consulate General in New York, featuring work from some of China's most prominent watercolor painters.

Twenty select pieces from Shanghai's Liu Haisu Museum were featured in the opening on Sept 19, with the exhibit running until Oct 2.

"Paintings that embody the highest-level of Chinese watercolor painting were selected, those that represent the current watercolor landscape as well as the development of the medium in China," the Consulate General said in a statement.

The exhibit - entitled Exhibition of the Best Watercolor Painting from Shanghai Liu Haisu Art Museum In Celebration of 65th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China - is not open to the public, but visitors to the Consulate General will be able to view the paintings.

"This exhibit is expressly for the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the founding of the nation, and it's also an opportunity to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the US and China," said Cheng Lei, deputy consul general of the Consulate General of China in New York.

"We hope that people will have the chance to come to the exhibit and find the opportunity to participate in and encourage US-China dialogue."

Chinese Consulate General in New York organized the exhibit in conjunction with the Shanghai Liu Haisu Art Museum and the Center for Chinese Art at William Paterson University in New Jersey.

"The Center for Chinese Art is probably one of the first of its kind on a university campus across the country. Through the center, to advance the center, we've reached out to organizations in the Chinese mainland and in the United States, and through [our director's] connections in China, we work with organizations like Liu Haisu Musem," Daryl Moore, dean of the College of the Arts and Communication at William Paterson University, told China Daily.

The exhibit features paintings from the 20th century up until now, including works from Du Zhuo, Chen Chaosheng, Zhou Gang, Wu Lieyan and Xue Liangbiao.

"If Western painting is the world of oil painting, and Eastern painting is the world of ink painting, watercolor painting is the intermediary of the western and eastern paintings," said Cong Zhiyuan, director of the Chinese Arts Center of William Paterson University.

"If the 20th century is a period in which Eastern and Western culture exchanged indirectly, superficially and partially, then in the 21th century, exchanges between Eastern and Western culture and arts came into the era of direct, in-depth and comprehensive exchanges," he said.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 09/22/2014 page2)