Artists who have been critical of Beijing’s response to Russia’s war on Ukraine said they welcomed a French museum’s recent decision to halt a loan of nearly 300 works by Henri Matisse to China.
“The boycott and sanction against China should have been there way earlier,” the Australia-based Chinese artist Badiucao told Artnet News. “The art world is the most compromised [sector] of Western society, which has been turning a blind eye to so many of China’s human rights violations, from endless censorships on artists to the brutal crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and the Ugyhur genocide.”
France’s Matisse Museum, which operates under the Nord Department, announced on February 25 that it would suspend its cultural exchange with China, leading to the cancellation or postponement of “Matisse by Matisse,” the largest solo exhibition of the French artist in China. The show was originally scheduled to open at UCCA Beijing on March 26, followed by a show at its Shanghai location, UCCA Edge, in July.
The façade of UCCA. Image courtesy…
