FONDAZIONE PRADA
A Love dedication message to China

Through the newly-opened exhibitions ‘Storytelling’ and ‘The Porcelain Room’, Fondazione Prada Milano sheds new light on China’s artistic heritage. Inviting visitors to discover a world made of apparent contrasts, purity, cultural references, introspection and suspension.

On the 29th of January 2020, Fondazione Prada – one of the most influential art institutions – presented two exhibitions to the press, through which it confirmed its interest in China’s artistic culture. The first one being a solo exhibition by Chinese painter Liu Ye, the second one being a display of many different examples of Chinese export porcelain. The ‘Storytelling’ exhibition was first held, in 2018, at Fondazione Prada’s Shanghai venue and features 35 paintings realised by Liu Ye from 1992 onwards. Curated by ex-director of Germany’s Nationalgalerie Udo Kittelmann, this unmissable show underlines the painter’s ability to create and invite onlookers to enter an idiosyncratic universe, relying on the contrast between Fondazione Prada Milano’s industrial design and the colours of Liu Wen’s artworks. Among the displayed, must-see paintings, there’s ‘Romeo’ (2002), acrylic on canvas inspired by William Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’. ‘I experienced his paintings as sensitive pictorial messages relayed between two worlds that are often viewed as contradictory: Western cultures versus Asian cultures’, said Kittelmann about Liu Ye’s oeuvre. As to ‘The Porcelain Room’, more than 1.700 artefacts, made from the 16th to the 19th century for different markets, religions and social groups, were gathered on the 4th floor of the art gallery’s Torre, allowing visitors to deepen the knowledge of the historical context, scope and impact of these particular objects and illustrating the efficiency of the Chinese in understanding the demand of each market segment. Storytelling and The Porcelain Room will be on display, from January 30 to September 28, at Fondazione Prada’s Milan venue, don’t miss your chance to visit these shows and, of course, take a selfie in the gilded, porcelain room!

‘I experienced his paintings as sensitive pictorial messages relayed between two worlds that are often viewed as contradictory:Western cultures versus Asian cultures’

KITTELMANN