Andranik Ghazarian & Philippe Piguet at FINAIS: Building a Cultural Bridge Between Europe and China
Finais bringing Monet's history and expertise to new audiences in China
As part of its cultural programme in China, Fine Art International Switzerland AG (FINAIS) invited French art historian, critic and curator Philippe Piguet to take part in a series of public events dedicated to Claude Monet, Impressionism and cultural dialogue between Europe and China.
A specialist in Impressionism and modern and contemporary art, Philippe Piguet also has a personal family connection to Claude Monet. His close relationship with Giverny, combined with decades of research, criticism and curatorial experience, gives him a distinctive perspective on Monet's life and work—one grounded both in art history and personal memory.
Through this collaboration, FINAIS sought to complement the presentation of important European artworks in China with specialist knowledge, interpretation and direct engagement with the public.
In July 2026, the programme took Philippe Piguet from the Guizhou Provincial Museum to Shenzhen, creating opportunities for Chinese audiences to explore Monet's world, the history of Impressionism and the wider connections that art can create between cultures.
Philipe Piguet aux Jardin de Giverny
From Giverny to Guizhou
On 18 July 2026, as part of the programme organised around FINAIS's cultural activities in China, Philippe Piguet appeared at the Guizhou Provincial Museum for a special presentation entitled The Giverny Years.
Drawing on his knowledge of Monet's life, work and family history, he introduced audiences to the artist's world at Giverny: his daily life, his garden, the changing effects of light and the environment that inspired some of the most celebrated works of his career.
Piguet invited the audience to consider Monet's paintings not simply as representations of landscapes or objects, but as explorations of perception, memory and sensation.
His presentation also provided a deeper context for the six original works by Monet displayed at the museum, including The Garden at Giverny, Entrance to the House at Giverny, Sailboat in a Storm and Waterloo Bridge.
These works formed part of Romance and Starlight: A Symphonic Epic from Romanticism to Modernism, presented at the Guizhou Provincial Museum from 10 July to 10 October 2026.
The exhibition brought together more than 80 works by over 50 European artists, including Delacroix, Courbet, Millet, Monet, Renoir, Picasso and Dalí, tracing major developments in European art from Romanticism and Realism through Impressionism and Modernism.
Philippe Piguet
« For Monet, the most important thing was never the object itself, but light. He painted sensations - the meeting of memory and reality, thought and the visible world »
Art as a Bridge Between Cultures
International exhibitions allow artworks to enter new cultural contexts and reach audiences who may otherwise never have the opportunity to encounter them directly.
This was particularly meaningful in Guizhou, a region with a rich cultural identity shaped by its history, local traditions and ethnic diversity.
Presenting European artworks in this environment created an opportunity for discovery and comparison between different artistic traditions. It also encouraged a broader dialogue between Eastern and Western approaches to art, history and cultural expression.
At FINAIS, we believe that collections can play an active role in cultural exchange.
Carefully organised international loans allow significant works to reach museums and public audiences while supporting education, research and cooperation between collectors, institutions and cultural organisations.
By making the European artworks available to the Guizhou Provincial Museum, FINAIS contributed directly to this exchange.
Philipe Piguet visiting the exbhition
Bringing Artworks and Expertise Together
FINAIS's collaboration with Philippe Piguet was conceived around two complementary aspects of international cultural exchange: access to artworks and access to knowledge.
Making significant European works available to audiences in China created the opportunity for direct encounters with the art itself. Inviting Philippe Piguet to China added another dimension to that experience, giving audiences access to the histories, ideas and personal perspectives surrounding the works.
His participation in Guizhou and Shenzhen helped transform the presentation of artworks into a broader educational and cultural programme.
For FINAIS, international cultural collaboration therefore goes beyond the circulation of artworks between countries.
It also involves creating the intellectual and human context in which those works can be discovered, discussed and understood.
By bringing specialists, institutions, collections and audiences together, a museum exhibition can become the starting point for a much wider conversation.
Philippe Piguet's programme connected Giverny with Guizhou, the history of Impressionism with contemporary audiences in China, and Monet's personal environment with wider questions about creativity, education and cultural transmission.
