Beijing Art Museum of Imperial City, China - 3 April – 15 May 2008

As one of the events of the ‘Cultural Year of Greece in China’, to accompany the 29th modern Olympic Games in Beijing, the archaeological exhibition:

Cyclades: Masterpieces of an Aegean Culture from the Museum of Cycladic Art and the National Archaeological Museum in Athens will be held in the Beijing Art Museum, Imperial City, from 3 April to 15 May 2008.

Thirty-six artefacts (marble figurines, marble and ceramic pots, and bronze and stone tools), dating from the late 4th and 3rd millennia BC, which belong to the collections of the N.P. Goulandris Foundation – Museum of Cycladic Art and the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece, will travel to Beijing for the first time.

The exhibition aims to bring the large Chinese public and visitors to Beijing, in the Imperial City, into contact with a number of typical examples of one of the earliest European cultures, which had a profoundly human character – the Cycladic culture, that evolved and flourished, mainly in the 3rd millennium BC, in the Cyclades islands at the centre of the Aegean.

The thirty-six artworks will attract and fascinate modern visitors through their formal simplicity and elegance, clear outlines, and the skill of the craftsmen who carved them in Cycladic marble nearly 5000 years ago. Undoubtedly, they will call to mind the works of great 20th-century artists, such as Picasso, Giacometti, Moore, Brancusi, Matisse, Archipenko and others, who have been inspired by the human figures created by Cycladic art.

The exhibition is the fruit of excellent collaboration between the:
Hellenic Ministry of Culture (General Secretariat for Olympic Utilisation)
Greek Embassy in Beijing
National Archaeological Museum
N.P. Goulandris Foundation – Museum of Cycladic Art
Beijing Art Museum, Imperial City

The exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly catalogue in Chinese and English.

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The Cultural Year of Greece in China, to be held from September 2007 to September 2008, will present the modern and also diachronic character of Hellenic Culture and Greece. Theatrical performances, cinema tributes, dance, archaeological and modern art exhibitions, opera, folk concerts, modern and popular music, conferences and book exhibitions are among the diverse activities taking place during the Cultural Year of Greece in China.

For more information, please contact:

Embassy of Greece – Cultural Section
Ms. Susan Gao
Ms. Lina Mao
Tel：010-5324513/65324713
Fax：010-65324426
E-Mail: grculture.pek@mfa.gr

Embassy of Greece – Press Office
Stelios Korkidis, Press Counselor
Euthymios Athanasiadis, Press Attaché
Tel：010-58696755
Fax：010-58696757
E-Mail: grpress@sohu.net

Upstream Asia Beijing Office
Ms. Cathy Fu
Ms. Cynthia Guan
Tel: 010-65307200-204/217
Fax: 010-65307340
E-Mail: cathy.fu@upstreamasia.com
cynthia.guan@upstreamasia.com