The Silk Route Art Transit Map with Extended Routes is a large-scale, archival, digital print by artist Valentina DuBasky featuring a transit-style map with 27 interconnected routes and 940 art destinations showing art exchanges extending across the ancient and medieval Silk Routes. The map depicts routes as overlapping art spheres with radiating branches that illustrate interconnected networks of rich and diverse art experiences. Hubs, transfer stations, cities, art centers, and ancient and nomadic sites represent places where art was created or discovered, and where motifs, techniques, and materials for art were exchanged or transferred. The schematic transit-style map supports art discussion across numerous cultural perspectives, empowering readers with navigational tools to chart their own art journeys across the extended Silk Routes.
A guidebook to the map...
The Guide to the Silk Route Art Transit Map with Extended Routes provides a detailed view of each route with descriptions of art and exchange across Afro-Eurasia and beyond. (forthcoming from Abingdon Square Publishing, 2025)
Valentina DuBasky and the Silk Routes...
Artist Valentina DuBasky traveled along the Silk Routes in India, China, Uzbekistan, and Southeast Asia to research Buddhist cave paintings and ancient art to prepare for her own paintings and prints.
The Silk Route Art Transit Map with Extended Routes is the result of Valentina’s extended art and research project that mapped art exchanges across the Silk Routes