An exhibit of realistic Chinese and modernistic Italian oil paintings and sculpture is under way in the Zhangjiang High-tech Zone in Pudong.

The Chinese part of the exhibition is comprised of the works by 10 painters, including Chen Danqing and Xia Baoyuan.

The majority of artists are older - they became famous in the 1970s, or even earlier with politically commissioned works of social realism.

The Italian artworks are by painter Sandro Trotti and sculptor Andrea Nicita, who were invited to China by Present International Art, a Florence-based organization headed by curator Yang Peishuo from Tianjin.

Trotti was born in 1934 and is now a veteran artist and professor in Rome; Nicita was born in 1961 in Florence and is now creating sculptures and doing renovation work around the world.

But it was a dramatic moment when, at the opening, other visiting Italian artists described realistic paintings by some Chinese artists with the phrase: "Non c''''''''est vita" ("There''s no life").

"The work of this painting can be done by photography," a Florentine artist said, declining to give his name. He pointed at highly realistic paintings of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) women by Chen Yiming, younger brother of late artist/designer Chen Yifei. "It''s like a photo, so what''s the point of painting it? The work of painting is to express what you feel and think of something, not its look."

"To me, such ''disappointment'''''''' is foreseeable and understandable," says Hu Xingyi, a young Shanghai artist, after he heard what the Italian said. "In the early days in China, we were isolated from contemporary art, and when our country opened to the world, these guys who were famous in the 1970s suddenly found they were already out of the picture.

"What they have now is what they gained in the past, not what they are making at present."

The exhibit is sponsored by a Chinese pharmaceutical company, Wison, and artistic organizations from both countries.