Russian artist displays enthusiasm in embroidery show
By admin on 2014-12-26

In downtown Moscow's Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, tiger-featured embroideries, writings and art craft gave visitors a first-hand experience of the Chinese Year of Tiger.

Dozens of the tiger-themed pieces, along with other embroideries that are based on Chinese characters of Hope, Love and Longevity, exhibits the enthusiasm of Russian artist Irina Zakharova in the Chinese art.

Zakharova had intensive engagement with the Chinese culture after she went to China in the 1980s with her husband, a Russian diplomat. She has published much of her works on Chinese art and culture thereafter.

Zakharova is a fan of the Chinese embroidery. The exhibits are mostly Chinese calligraphical writings recreated with delicate embroidery techniques.

Among the exhibits were writings by Elizabeth Kishkina, wife of late Chinese revolutionary Li Lisan and former Chinese ambassador to Russia Zhang Deguang.

One of her recent creations was two Chinese characters of "Tiger" -- the golden one symbolizes an agile animal in the daytime and the grayish depicts a dormant one in the night, she said.

The cloths used for her works were collected from the Chinese Shandong Province, Tianjin city and Shanxi Province, where Zakharova explored the mystery of embroidery.

"By using my own hands, I hope I can make something that is distinctively Chinese," she said.

Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui said that Zakharova has explored unique ways to disseminate China's traditional culture and promote cultural exchanges between the two people. Her exhibition is part of the Year of Chinese Language in Russia.