The World of Zhou Zhiwei

Notes along the way – London, 2023

In Shanghai East TV series about artists, Zhou Zhiwei is portrayed as “the traveller”. He is not only a painter but also an avid traveller. His paintings encompass a wide range of subjects including different figures, different landscapes and atmospheres. Travelling serves  as  his primary source of inspiration and within the nature he encounters during his  journeys we discover a rich tapestry: serene  temples,   the profound beauty  of a mountains, the snow_capped peaks,  the African baobabs and Mongolian children riding horses. While Zhou Zhiwei’s subjects vary greatly, a common thread can be discerned in the sensitivity with which he interprets nature.

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Zhou Zhiwei Grand Tour

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The project Grand Tour, Italy seen by Chinese Artists was born in 2014 with the idea of opening the doors of Italian Art to Chinese Artists leading them to discover and paint Italian natural and cultural heritage.

The first programme took place in Rome and its neighbourhood. Zhou Zhiwei escorted his Chinese colleagues in the places where the Etruscan Art and the art of ancient Rome were born.

The works of the five famous Chinese artists taking part in the project were on display in the National Museum of Eastern Art in Rome and in Tuscania in the venue of the Kokocinski Foundation with works of the classical Grand Tour belonging to the art collector Fabrizio Nevola.

After the success of the exhibition at The National Museum of Eastern Art in Rome Zhou Zhiwei wanted to study the theme of the Grand tour in a different way to find the Sources of the Renaissance and a well known writer and a world wide famous musician joined the team. So they started The Grand Tour at the Sources of the Renaissance.

The artists travelled from Urbino to Arezzo, from San Sepolcro to Caprese Michelangelo, in the places of Grand Tour where Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo, Raffaello, the poet Petrarca,  Vasari and many other great masters of the Italian Renaissance were born.

They also spent some time in La Verna Sanctuary in search of the spirituality and the uniqueness of the nature in the place. The works painted were exhibited in the Poppi Castle, where Dante Alighieri had lived. The show was inaugurated on the 8 th October 2016 with a concert of the famous singer Wang Zuoxin.

In October 2017 the paintings of The Grand Tour at the Sources of the Renaissance were exhibited in the Academy of the Arts of Drawing in Florence, the most ancient art academy in the world founded 1563 by Cosimo I de’ Medici. The exhibition was enriched by the contribution of the great Master Alessandro Kokocinsky, a dear friend of Zhou Zhiwei and of Professor Wang Weixin, who exhibited their works inspired by Dante Alighieri Divine Comedy.

The Grand Tour – Italy Seen by Chinese Artists

The Grand Tour – At the Source of the Renaissance

The Grand Tour

The Spirit of the Grand Tour continues