Prominent Chilean artist's Chinese odyssey celebrated

Chile is almost as far as it is possible to get from China. When in March 1952, a Chilean artist named Jose Venturelli (1924-88) arrived to attend an international conference, the journey linked him closely to a country on the other side of the world from his own, and spurred him to expand exchanges between China, Chile and Latin America, until the final moments of his life.

Pioneering the friendship between the two countries, Venturelli traveled to China on a number of occasions, making art, teaching and exhibiting. He helped introduce the foremost trends in painting in Europe to artists and students in China, and in the Chilean capital, Santiago, he co-founded the Chilean-Chinese Cultural Institute with Pablo Neruda and Salvador Allende, and promoted visits by South American cultural figures to China.

While living in Beijing (where he would eventually die), Venturelli and his family took dozens of photos of Chinese artists and intellectuals, and documented the social scene of the 1950s.

A selection of these photos, along with some of the drawings he made in China, are now on show at Chile y China (Chile and China), an exhibition marking Venturelli's contributions to exchanges between the two countries. It is being held at the National Art Museum of China until Tuesday, and items on show are from the collection of the Jose Venturelli Foundation.

Among the guests at the opening ceremony on Oct 16 was Chilean President Gabriel Boric, who led the delegation attending the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

Venturelli began formal art training at 14. He studied biology and botany at college and participated the establishment of Chile's national herbarium, but it was his deep passion for art, and the pursuit of cultural exchange and peace through art, that motivated him to travel widely.

He once said that "artistic creation is a form of combat in the transformation of our materials, our ideas and ourselves. It's a form of struggle". He shared these beliefs with colleagues and students in Beijing, while he taught at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in the 1950s. His wife, Delia Baraona, taught Spanish at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. He also befriended prominent artists including Qi Baishi, Fu Baoshi and Li Keran, from whom he learned the beauty of classical Chinese art, the influence of which is visible in his drawings made while he was in China.

Paintings by Qi and Fu, and other artists with connections to Venturelli from the museum's collection, are also on show to mark their association.

Malva Venturelli, the artist's granddaughter and executive director of the Jose Venturelli Foundation, says that her grandfather not only brought his art and introduced Chile and its people to China, but was also deeply influenced by the country. "The life and social transformations of this land enriched his work," she says.

Jose Venturelli said that when he painted, he was also discussing the situation and fate of people.

"All his life, Venturelli thought about human nature, social values and the public good, which he expressed through different forms of art," says Wu Weishan, director of the art museum.

"The images on show were made decades ago, but the smiling faces and the scenes are still vivid, a reminder of the friendship being forged between the two cultures, and which continues to bridge the hearts of their people."