LI CHEVALIER

Translation from the article  published by the official website of the  French Ministry of Foreign Affaires  [LATITUDE FRANCE] 

Two paintings by Franco-Chinese artist Li Chevalier will soon enter the collection of the new French Embassy in Beijing recently inaugurated by President Sarkozy. This follows the visit by French Ambassador Sylvie Berman and her advisors to the artist’s studio last April. The decision to add Li Chevalier’s work to the collection has important significance – symbolising the cultivation of a deep relationship between the embassy and its host country.

Through the art on display in their salons, embassies showcase the vital cross-fertilisation between two cultures. Li Chevalier’s paintings are a tribute to the creative heritage of France and China; she joins Zao Wouki and Zhu Dequn, two other Chinese artists whose works have been part of the embassy collection for many years.

Denis Lavalle, the chef Curator of the French National Heritage praised this choice. According to him, “Li Chevalier’s works represent far more than mere 21st Century modern-style painting. The artist has been steadily exploring on her canvas the shapes born from light and shadows. Her paintings go beyond sheer aesthetics, delving deeply into poetic intensity through a mixture of beautiful, floating whites on staunch sand and dark, sombre inks. In a way, she is part of the French tradition of hypersensitivity to imagination and dreams – the spiritual daughter of Victor Hugo and Andre Masson. But she also draws on her roots to extract time-honoured elements of traditional Chinese paintings: depicting the universe through the gentle detail of a leaf or the evanescence of a misty cloud. No wonder her works have found a safe home in this symbolic location, the French Embassy in China.”