During the Spring Festival holidays, visitors to the China National Art Museum will have a rare opportunity to see vividly portrayed gods, auspicious animals such as tigers, monkeys and figures from fairy tales which are made by genuine folk artists of paper cuts, woodblock prints, decorative paintings in temples and shadow puppets.

A grand exhibition of selected folk artworks from northwest China's Shaanxi Province is under way at the museum, and will end on February 17.

On display are 148 paper cuts from northern Shaanxi, 52 temple painting manuscripts, 256 examples of embroidery from southern Shaanxi, 161 sets of shadow puppet works and 82 woodblock New Year prints, according to Liu Kuanren, deputy chief of the Provincial Culture Division and a co-organizer of the exhibition.

The exhibits offer noteworthy pieces from the 50-year-old collection of the Shaanxi Provincial Art Museum, which boasts about 1 million examples of ancient and folk art. Some exhibits were created by folk artists, especially the more obscure female practitioners, from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, said Liu.

He hopes the exhibition will attract more public attention to the remote province, known for its rich traditional culture.

(China Daily January 29, 2004)