Timeline: Painting the right picture

An exhibition of 19th century French landscape painting is held at the National Gallery, Beijing. It is the first exhibition of foreign art since the start of the reform and openingup policy.

Renowned Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan makes his first tour of China with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Teahouse, a play written in 1957 by Lao She, tours Germany, France and Switzerland. Twenty-five shows are presented in 15 cities. It is the first Chinese play to be performed overseas.

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts organizes one of the first exhibitions of new Western art in China.

Gu Wenda, who reinterprets traditional ink painting, receives the award of the Canada Council for the Arts Visiting Foreign Artists Program and holds his first overseas exhibition in Toronto.

The works of Huang Yongping, Yang Jiechang and Gu Dexin are shown for the first time at an exhibition called Magiciens de la Terre at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

The British Museum exhibits paintings by Wu Guanzhong, making Wu the first living Chinese artist to be shown at the museum.

Wang Guangyi holds a solo exhibition in Paris, followed by several other shows in Europe.

The first Shanghai China International Arts Festival is held and showcases a range of global arts.

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• 1981:

• 1987:

• 1989:

1992:

• 1993:

• 1999:

China opens its first official pavilion at the Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most important noncommercial art events. An estimated 200 Chinese artists arrive in the Italian city.

A 1946 ink painting by Qi Baishi sells for $65.4 million at the China Guardian Spring Sale. By the end of the year, China surpasses the US as the world’s biggest art and auction market.

Uli Sigg, a former Swiss ambassador to China, donates his art collection to the M+ museum in Hong Kong.

The Vatican museums and the China Cultural Industrial Investment Fund announce the first exchange initiative to open simultaneous exhibitions at the Palace Museum, Beijng, and the Anima Mundi Museum in the Vatican City.

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• 2011:

• 2012:

•2017:

PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Dong Kecheng, a painter and professor at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, gives students a lesson in painting.