Modern Chinese paintings - Shelagh Vainker

The Reyes Collection of modern Chinese paintings covers the period from the middle of the 19th century until late 1995 when the collection was presented to the Ashmolean Museum. Artistically this period includes paintings which seek to update the tradition, as well as works embodying a response to Japanese or to Western art and works which reflect international art movements of the late 20th century. Politically it is a period that began under the Qing dynasty, which witnessed the founding of the Republic in 1911 and the establishment in 1949 of the People's Republic of China; it was also a period punctuated by unrest in the form of widescale rebellion, the Sino-Japanese (1937-45) war, civil war and, most recently, the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). The plurality of artistic styles that arose in these circumstances, together with the ongoing tension between China's illustrious past and international present, has precluded the decisive formulation of a mainstream in Chinese painting; the Reyes collection, in representing the conservative as well as the innovative painters of each generation, is in keeping with most major collections, public and private, in this field.