Sunday, November 30, 2003
A TRIP TO THE NATIONAL ART MUSEUM OF CHINA
See pictures from the National Art Museum of China.
This past Saturday, November 22nd we got beyond the shopping district of Wangfujing (wong-fue-jing) Lu, traveling with a genial taxi driver who assured us that he could understand our Chinese, and would take us to the Art Museum at the far end of Wangfujing St. where it meets with Wu Si (woo suh - 54) St. This was our second attempt to see art in China and this time we were successful. Our first was to see the Beijing Art Museum, which we did find, but it was closed for repairs. We will try again there because the site is a converted Buddhist monastery, and the buildings alone are very interesting.
The National Art Museum is a most imposing building with interesting Chinese features at the roofline on the exterior. It was built in 1959 as part of an extensive building program in Beijing to feature the many cultural aspects of China in its capital city. The foyer is imposing and stately, featuring massive cast bronze doors with decorative bosses in geometric patterns, and an overwhelming abundance of polished beige stone on walls and floors - rather antiseptic for an art museum. We arrived around 10 am, among the very few early visitors there. Our admission ticket was a puzzle to us - it was a small VCD for the computer, in its own envelope...strange we thought. For 20 yuan each, we felt we already had our money’s worth.
NAMOC's brochure offers a wide and sweeping mission statement full of metaphor and high-flown rhetoric - some of the best we’ve read in a long time! "The twentieth century was an unprecedented great era in the development history of the Chinese nation. During the period, China transformed from ancient stage to modern epoch, and progressed in the direction of rebirth and reconstruction, reform and opening up, standing erect in the east of the world as a vigorously developing socialist country with Chinese characteristics. Chinese art in the twentieth century coincided with this historical beat, by inheriting excellent national traditions, borrowing foreign artistic nutrition, pressing close to actual situations of China, and composing new cantos of the day. The twentieth century is able to rival with any previous century with its great achievements and spirits of the era in the China fine arts history." (verbatim) What more could we say!
The central hall immediately ahead of us held a large exhibition about Macau, the Portuguese enclave south of Hong Kong. Artists from across the country had applied to be part of this exhibition, and all works had been juried for selection in this show. There were paintings, calligraphy, photos and sculpture. All was slightly shopworn – this exhibition had been traveling around the country for some time. But we were in search of more! In fact, Judy was looking for the washroom, which Ken spotted first - luxuriously appointed single person rooms with all the comforts of home – Canadian home. Sit down toilet, toilet paper, large oval basin in a cabinet, soap, automatic hand dryer, flowers even!
Nothing of note yet.... but when we wandered into the side galleries, WOW! Chinese brush painting in numbers and a scale that blew us away with its technique, artistry and inventiveness... even daring. We attach some images of the two art shows because we cannot really capture them in words, but even this is to diminish their impact. The two painters employ all the techniques of the classical Chinese brush painting styles, but with a freshness and vigor that was amazing. The one painter was more impressionistic, dealing with great outcroppings of rock and waterfalls. The other painter was more controlled and somewhat formulaic in his use of colour and highlighting, but impressive nonetheless.
The first exhibition, entitled Shan Gao Shui Chang - High Mountain, Long Water - was the work of Sun Jiangtao. All paintings on paper, the subject was the craggy mountains and waterfalls along the Yangtze River in central China. As we made our way around the two galleries, we were struck by the familiarity of the images - we had seen these mountains and waterfalls from the cabin of our cruise ship in May 2002. The flooding of the Three Gorges on the Yangtze to create the dam for China's new hydroelectric project was undoubtedly in the mind of the artist. Through his skillful use of watercolour, ink and brush he was able to capture the textures of rock and water, contrasting the solid rock with the mists rising from the waterfalls. The most outstanding pieces were images so huge that it took 5 sheets of paper to capture them. These sheets were installed from the ceiling and fell, like a waterfall, to the floor, where they spilled out several feet toward the visitor. The image was truly stunning, capturing the grandeur of the mountains and water falls cascading to the river far below. The subject closest to us was the river itself, and the river traffic, both dwarfed by the mighty mountains above them. Such an installation readily brought to our minds the traditional Chinese scroll paintings, updated and put to new use in this exhibition. Each piece included the customary calligraphic notation, which also spilled down the side of the piece, a graceful reference to the subject of each piece.
The second exhibition we had seen in a preview on CCTV, China's international television station, which has an English language channel. One of our lifelines to the outside world, and to China, since this station features many documentaries about different areas of China as part of its regular programming. We also watch DaShan (Mark Roswell), the famous former Ottawa resident who does a 15-minute Learn to Speak Chinese show several times a day.
We were thrilled to walk into this exhibition, with recent works by the master painter and calligrapher Lu Zhixue, which had just opened the previous evening. As well as an introductory foyer arranged with small works, the exhibition filled two large rooms. Mountains and water, forests and streams surrounded us, emphasized by splashes of colour capturing long range panoramic views and close ups alike. In some, the artist’s viewpoint suggested that he floated far above his subject, like an eagle soaring on the currents of the wind. Several images were of autumn in woods similar in colour to our own - white birches, yellow and red leaves, all reflected in a tranquil stream. Again here there were several very large works, displayed to great advantage on strategic walls, tantalizing the visitor by their magnificent colour and breathtaking viewpoints.
We will return to NAMOC to see the permanent collection, on display on the second floor. But for this, our first visit, we had seen enough to stimulate and to recall with pleasure as we carry on through the dreary wet and chilling days of late November in Huairou.
And the VCD proved to be an inventive 8-minute introduction to the gallery and its permanent collection -- what a smart idea! Just pop it into the CD drive in the computer. AGO take note. The tickets cost us 20Y each - less than $4. How do they do it?
See pictures from the National Art Museum of China.
This past Saturday, November 22nd we got beyond the shopping district of Wangfujing (wong-fue-jing) Lu, traveling with a genial taxi driver who assured us that he could understand our Chinese, and would take us to the Art Museum at the far end of Wangfujing St. where it meets with Wu Si (woo suh - 54) St. This was our second attempt to see art in China and this time we were successful. Our first was to see the Beijing Art Museum, which we did find, but it was closed for repairs. We will try again there because the site is a converted Buddhist monastery, and the buildings alone are very interesting.
The National Art Museum is a most imposing building with interesting Chinese features at the roofline on the exterior. It was built in 1959 as part of an extensive building program in Beijing to feature the many cultural aspects of China in its capital city. The foyer is imposing and stately, featuring massive cast bronze doors with decorative bosses in geometric patterns, and an overwhelming abundance of polished beige stone on walls and floors - rather antiseptic for an art museum. We arrived around 10 am, among the very few early visitors there. Our admission ticket was a puzzle to us - it was a small VCD for the computer, in its own envelope...strange we thought. For 20 yuan each, we felt we already had our money’s worth.
NAMOC's brochure offers a wide and sweeping mission statement full of metaphor and high-flown rhetoric - some of the best we’ve read in a long time! "The twentieth century was an unprecedented great era in the development history of the Chinese nation. During the period, China transformed from ancient stage to modern epoch, and progressed in the direction of rebirth and reconstruction, reform and opening up, standing erect in the east of the world as a vigorously developing socialist country with Chinese characteristics. Chinese art in the twentieth century coincided with this historical beat, by inheriting excellent national traditions, borrowing foreign artistic nutrition, pressing close to actual situations of China, and composing new cantos of the day. The twentieth century is able to rival with any previous century with its great achievements and spirits of the era in the China fine arts history." (verbatim) What more could we say!
The central hall immediately ahead of us held a large exhibition about Macau, the Portuguese enclave south of Hong Kong. Artists from across the country had applied to be part of this exhibition, and all works had been juried for selection in this show. There were paintings, calligraphy, photos and sculpture. All was slightly shopworn – this exhibition had been traveling around the country for some time. But we were in search of more! In fact, Judy was looking for the washroom, which Ken spotted first - luxuriously appointed single person rooms with all the comforts of home – Canadian home. Sit down toilet, toilet paper, large oval basin in a cabinet, soap, automatic hand dryer, flowers even!
Nothing of note yet.... but when we wandered into the side galleries, WOW! Chinese brush painting in numbers and a scale that blew us away with its technique, artistry and inventiveness... even daring. We attach some images of the two art shows because we cannot really capture them in words, but even this is to diminish their impact. The two painters employ all the techniques of the classical Chinese brush painting styles, but with a freshness and vigor that was amazing. The one painter was more impressionistic, dealing with great outcroppings of rock and waterfalls. The other painter was more controlled and somewhat formulaic in his use of colour and highlighting, but impressive nonetheless.
The first exhibition, entitled Shan Gao Shui Chang - High Mountain, Long Water - was the work of Sun Jiangtao. All paintings on paper, the subject was the craggy mountains and waterfalls along the Yangtze River in central China. As we made our way around the two galleries, we were struck by the familiarity of the images - we had seen these mountains and waterfalls from the cabin of our cruise ship in May 2002. The flooding of the Three Gorges on the Yangtze to create the dam for China's new hydroelectric project was undoubtedly in the mind of the artist. Through his skillful use of watercolour, ink and brush he was able to capture the textures of rock and water, contrasting the solid rock with the mists rising from the waterfalls. The most outstanding pieces were images so huge that it took 5 sheets of paper to capture them. These sheets were installed from the ceiling and fell, like a waterfall, to the floor, where they spilled out several feet toward the visitor. The image was truly stunning, capturing the grandeur of the mountains and water falls cascading to the river far below. The subject closest to us was the river itself, and the river traffic, both dwarfed by the mighty mountains above them. Such an installation readily brought to our minds the traditional Chinese scroll paintings, updated and put to new use in this exhibition. Each piece included the customary calligraphic notation, which also spilled down the side of the piece, a graceful reference to the subject of each piece.
The second exhibition we had seen in a preview on CCTV, China's international television station, which has an English language channel. One of our lifelines to the outside world, and to China, since this station features many documentaries about different areas of China as part of its regular programming. We also watch DaShan (Mark Roswell), the famous former Ottawa resident who does a 15-minute Learn to Speak Chinese show several times a day.
We were thrilled to walk into this exhibition, with recent works by the master painter and calligrapher Lu Zhixue, which had just opened the previous evening. As well as an introductory foyer arranged with small works, the exhibition filled two large rooms. Mountains and water, forests and streams surrounded us, emphasized by splashes of colour capturing long range panoramic views and close ups alike. In some, the artist’s viewpoint suggested that he floated far above his subject, like an eagle soaring on the currents of the wind. Several images were of autumn in woods similar in colour to our own - white birches, yellow and red leaves, all reflected in a tranquil stream. Again here there were several very large works, displayed to great advantage on strategic walls, tantalizing the visitor by their magnificent colour and breathtaking viewpoints.
We will return to NAMOC to see the permanent collection, on display on the second floor. But for this, our first visit, we had seen enough to stimulate and to recall with pleasure as we carry on through the dreary wet and chilling days of late November in Huairou.
And the VCD proved to be an inventive 8-minute introduction to the gallery and its permanent collection -- what a smart idea! Just pop it into the CD drive in the computer. AGO take note. The tickets cost us 20Y each - less than $4. How do they do it?
All text and photography © copyright Harkaway, 2003 - 2004
