New Year paintings are a type of Chinese painting. The “painting of the Door-God”, which began in ancient times, is part of Chinese folk art and common folk crafts. As a unique painting genre in China, New Year paintings are also an art form that people in rural China enjoy a lot. Most of them are used for decoration during the Chinese New Year t, and they bring blessings and auspiciousness for the New Year, hence the name.

Since the 1960s, New Year paintings with traditional themes have been gradually replaced by New Year paintings with new themes, some of which have obvious characteristics of these times; so, the meaning of “New Year paintings” have changed from a form of painting art to “New Year’s posters”.

By the late 1980s, large paper calendars with pictures of landscapes, Chinese paintings, famous people, etc., began to replace traditional New Year’s paintings. From that moment on, the paintings of the Door-God became a distant memory of the past, existing only as a concept.

We have selected some of Chinese New Year paintings from the collection of the Belgium-China Association Library to hold this exhibition, aiming to introduce the once popular Chinese New Year paintings to all and to greet the arrival of the Tiger Year 2022.

Opening hours: from Tuesday until Saturday from 2 pm until 6 pm until end of May.

Free Income

Confucius Institute in Brussels & Belgium-China Association

                                         Brussels, January 10th, 2022

中国年画展（1959-1986）

年画是中国绘画的一种，始于古代的“门神画”，是中国民间艺术之一，亦是常见的民间工艺品之一。年画是中国特有的一种绘画体裁，也是中国农村老百姓喜闻乐见的艺术形式。年画大都用于新年时张贴，装饰环境，含有祝福新年吉祥喜庆之意，故名。

从1960年代起，传统题材的年画逐渐被一些新题材的年画所取代，其中一些年画的主题具有明显的时代特征；于是“年画”的含义就从一种绘画艺术形式变成了“新年张贴的画”。大约从1980年代后期起，大张纸的年历开始取代了年画。年历上的画主要有明星照片、风景照片、中国画等。从此，中国年画一般只存在于概念之中了。

我们从比中协会图书馆的馆藏中国年画中选取了部分年画举办这次展览，把曾经在中国盛行的年画介绍给大家，并以此迎接壬寅虎年的到来。

布鲁塞尔孔子学院、比中协会

 2022年1月10日于布鲁塞尔