An exhibition of works by Ilya Repin – the realist painter at the centre of a culture war between Moscow and Kyiv – has opened in Beijing as part of an exchange series between China and Russia.
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A collection of 48 oil paintings and 44 sketches by Repin (1844-1930), one of the most renowned 19th-century artists in the Russian Empire, is on show at the National Museum of China.
The exhibition – titled “Ilya Repin: Encyclopedia of Russian Life” – will run until mid-January as part of the 2024-25 Russian-Chinese Years of Culture as the neighbouring countries mark 75 years of diplomatic ties.
Tatyana Yudenkova, deputy director of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, said the exhibition would emphasise Repin’s “Russianness” through important periods of his life, from his early years at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg to his later years on the Gulf of Finland in the early 1900s.
“The colour scheme of the [Beijing museum] halls is blue, green, dark beige. The classical columns, pediments and other elements of the order architecture of classicism will remind us of the academic period of study in St Petersburg,” Yudenkova told Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta last month.
The exhibition comes as Ukraine, a former member of the Soviet Union, is trying to reclaim its cultural identity from perceived Russian appropriation amid a protracted war. There is contention over everything from language to churches and celebrated artists like Ukrainian-born Repin, whose national identity is claimed by both Russia and Ukraine.
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In January, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications in Kyiv said the works of Repin – known as Illia Riepin or Ripyn in Ukraine – were part of its national cultural heritage.