Voyaging to reveal the verse

The most recently completed pieces on show were made during and after a journey to Dunhuang this July and August to trace sites in Northwest China that were visited by the ancient poets, and about which they composed poems.

In the vast desert near the Mingsha Mountain (or Singing Sand Dunes), Shen Linfeng, a calligraphy teacher and member of the exhibition's curatorial team, wrote a text by Ban Gu, a scholar-official who lived in the first century, on a 200-meter vertical scroll. A video recording the process, The Sea of Time, can be seen at the exhibition.

"As I was working on the paper, my mind was full of scenes in which these poets, when they reached the distant region, marveled at the vastness of the land and recited poems out loud to express their mixed feelings and their presence in the universe," Shen says.

Han Xu, deputy dean of the China Academy of Art, says that poetry extracts the purest essence of culture, its best and most spiritual parts.

"As we set out to trace the steps of ancient poets, we have been able to touch upon the multiple dimensions of Tang poetry through innovation in the exhibition's approach, as well as the magnificence of our culture," Han says.

Liu Haiyong, a professor at the China Academy of Art and the exhibition's chief curator, says the exhibition also shows similarly themed works by well-known artists from Beijing; for example, Qiu Zhijie, who, in his painting A Poetic Depiction of the Yellow River, creates a Yellow River landscape by including classic verses from history hailing its majestic views.

The exhibition will also be on display in Dunhuang for five months next year.