Masterpieces of Chinese Painting, V&A

     In an increasingly sinocentric world, it’s timely of the V&A to bring a huge survey, representing over 1,000 years of Chinese painting , to British shores. Apt as the Western art world can be to overlook China’s contribution to the visual arts as we know them, Masterpieces of Chinese Painting takes on the enormous task of navigating hundreds of works - some of the earliest surviving Chinese paintings – including a 12th century silk scroll that has never travelled abroad before now .

   Awe-inspiring then, and a welcome rewind for many of us. Alongside the better-known Ming Dynasty, the show also surveys the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the equally long Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) – huge tracts of art history that are less than well-known in the West. This means that a lot is riding on the coattails of the show, but not least a big blast of international goodwill. Writer Jung Chang, bestselling author of Wild Swans, has called the show ‘a wonderful thing’. Curator Zhang Hongxing, senior curator of Chinese Collections at the V&A corroborates: “to understand contemporary China people need to know where they come from.”

      With this depth of field, the show is largely chronological, but also sorted into big themes. The first section, Objects of Devotion, contains an exquisite collection of Tang dynasty silk paintings and banners. Allow some time to take in the detail: landscapes and animals, horses, monkeys, dragons peer out at the viewer out from the scrolls and screens, tombs and temples they inhabit. There emerge some true hero artists as well: look out for the work of the ‘Four Great Masters’ of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) such as Qiu Ying, and his masterful Saying Farewell at Xunyang (c.1500-50).

We hear that Chinese citizens are making the trip to London just to see this unique exhibition. An absolute must see, book pronto!

Ticket price: £13.50

Address and map: Cromwell Road SW7 2RL

Neareast Tube Station: South Kensington on the Piccadilly line