This is quite possibly one of the most exciting achievements of the National Gallery of Victoria – NGV – in quite some time. And that’s taking into consideration their constant sessions with world renowned artists and designers as an ongoing thing.
Alongside the world of Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, the Terracotta Warriors of Shaanxi, China will make their way to Melbourne for the second time at the Gallery.
“Thirty-six years ago, in 1982, the National Gallery of Victoria presented the first international exhibition of China’s ancient Terracotta Warriors only several years after their discovery. History will be made again in 2019, when the Qin Emperor’s Terracotta Army will return to the NGV for the 2019 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition series – this time in a sophisticated dialogue with the work one of China’s most celebrated contemporary artists, Cai Guo-Qiang,” said director of the NGV, Tony Ellwood.
As part of the Gallery’s 2019 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces presentation: China’s ancient Terracotta Warriors alongside a parallel display of new works by one of the world’s most exciting contemporary artists, Cai Guo-Qiang will make their way to the city of Melbourne in a large scale exhibition from China that is set to outlast the memories of most.
The exhibition is aptly named Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality and is a large-scale presentation of the Qin Emperor’s Terracotta Warriors, which, discovered in 1974 in China’s Shaanxi province, are regarded as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the twentieth century and widely described as the eighth wonder of the world.
They’re from c.200 BCE and were a funerary rite for the first Emperor of China,to protect him in the afterlife.
Presented in parallel, Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape, will see contemporary artist, Cai Guo-Qiang, create all new art works inspired by his home country’s culture and its enduring philosophical traditions, including a monumental installation of 10,000 suspended porcelain birds.
The Melbourne Winter Masterpieces presentation is the centerpiece of the NGV’s Autumn/Winter 2019 program, which also includes major exhibitions Heysen/Heysen: Two Generations of Australian Art, which pairs father and daughter artists Hans and Nora Heysen, and Alexander Calder: Radical Inventor, the first major Australian exhibition celebrating the work of the American modernist.
See more about it all and get your tickets at the NGV website.
