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The famed Chinese painter and sculptor Yuan Chi Kung, on a visit to the Dominican Republic to be honored by the government and present the government with a gift (a bust of Juan Pablo Duarte), stopped by to visit and enjoy Casa de Campo!
A ceremony was held recently at the Dominican National Palace, in honor of Chinese artist Yuan Chi Kung, who in return gifted the Dominican government with a magnificent bust of founding father Juan Pablo Duarte. Yuan Chi Kung, who is currently one of the most celebrated plastic artists in the world was honored for his work in plastic arts around the world.
Over the course of the past decade, Yuan Chi Kung is known for having created busts of historic political and cultural figures across the Americas as gifts to their governments – Cuba, for instance, received a marvelous bust of Jose Martí, the United States received a magnificent sculpture of Abraham Lincoln looking proudly into the horizon, and Colombia received a bust of Gabriel García Márquez.
So when on his visit to the Dominican Republic, the great artist was given a free weekend before going to Santo Domingo – so where did he go? Why, Casa de Campo, of course! Upon arriving at the Las Americas International Airport, the artist and his entourage were taken here, where they all reportedly enjoyed the Caribbean’s delights, also taking time to visit Altos de Chavón, where he met the manager of the Casa de Campo hotel, Daniel Hernández, and the two exchanged gifts; Yuan gave Hernández a beautifully lettered script that read “From One Hero to Another” in Chinese calligraphy, and Hernández, in turn, gifted the Chinese master with a book written by his father, Colombian painter Manuel Hernández.
Yuan Chi Kung with Daniel Hernandez
The Sunday before the ceremony the artist visited the neighborhood of Río Salao in La Romana, where the artist and his company were taken on a tour of the river and a subsequent visit to the municipality itself, where the Dominican Cultural Representative to China, Rosa NG, gave Yuan and the Chinese delegation a tour of the project the Dominican government has been running to improve conditions in the area.
Yuan Chi Kung with Susana Joa and Ricardo Bello visiting Río Salao.
Back in Santo Domingo, the ceremony itself was held within the Dominican National Palace honoring the entirety of Yuan’s career, and the artist’s magnificent bust of Juan Pablo Duarte was gifted officially to the government of the Dominican Republic. President Danilo Medina himself was in attendance to give the master artist his thanks and a decoration on behalf of the government and people of the Dominican Republic.