Marc Riboud (1923–2016) was a renowned French photographer celebrated for his humanistic concern, keen powers of observation, and poetic visual language. His photographic style combined documentary and lyrical qualities, with a gift for capturing the emotion and tension in everyday moments. In 1953, he joined Magnum Photos and became the first Western photographer in the 1950s to be granted permission to photograph in China.

At the end of December 1956, Marc Riboud arrived in Hong Kong. On January 1, 1957, he traveled from Hong Kong to Beijing, beginning a three-month journey that took him across cities and villages in the Northeast, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chongqing, and Lanzhou, among others. This visit yielded a rich body of photographic work and marked the start of his decades-long journey through China. Over the course of more than twenty visits, he captured countless moments imbued with the spirit of the era, leaving behind a vast and invaluable visual record that bore witness to the profound transformation and sweeping changes in Chinese society.

In 2010, following his retrospective exhibition in Shanghai, Marc Riboud donated a selection of important works to the CAFA Art Museum. From March 6 to April 2, 2010, the CAFA Art Museum held The Instinctive Moment: A Marc Riboud Restropective, centering on his documentary works from nearly half a century of photographing China, and presenting a concentrated view of the rich characters, landscapes, and social scenes through his lens.

International Treasures

The CAFA Art Museum's international art collection has developed a distinctive cross-cultural narrative through diverse sources and deep historical foundations. In the 1930s and 1950s, original 19th-century European oil paintings and frames entered the collection via institutional allocation. Although many of these works, originally collected for teaching and research, were created by anonymous painters, they cover a broad range of subjects — from still lifes and florals to scenes of everyday life and labor — offering an authentic portrayal of the times and serving as tangible evidence for the study of 19th-century art. Among them, "Head of a Woman with Flowers" by Gustave Courbet stands out as a true gem.

The museum's diverse collection of prints bears the mark of socialist art exchanges. Wang Manshuo, former vice president of CAFA, brought back works by faculty and students from the Kyiv State Art Institute, whose woodcuts and etchings blended socialist themes with national customs and history. Wu Biduan, former chair of the Department of Printmaking, systematically collected 56 prints during his studies in the Soviet Union — including works personally gifted by renowned artists such as Neret Vokin, as well as classmate pieces and other valuable cultural heritage.

This multifaceted collection both engages in dialogue with 19th-century European traditions and builds a dynamic archive of international visual culture. With 19th-century oil paintings as its "origin," prints as its "veins," and contemporary developments as its "flow," these international treasures in the museum's holdings are not only slices of art history, but also living proof of our participation in international art exchange through collecting, research, and reinterpretation.

Exhibition Info:

2025 National Exhibition Season of Art Museums' Brilliant Collections Organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism

Interflowing Artscapes: CAFAM International Exchange Research Exhibition from the Collection

Organizer: CAFA Art Museum

Duration: July 18 - August 24, 2025

Venue: 3A & 3B Gallery, CAFA Art Museum

Translator：ZHANG Xinni

Reviewer: ZHANG Yifan