National Art Gallery

Yesterday Nou and I did a little exploring at the National Art Gallery, which is in a beautiful building (half-Chinese architecture, half-western) in the Chaoyang (?) district. The main exhibit there is a husband-wife partnership named Lu Ping and Ji Qiansheng, and they do scenic paintings along with people. This exhibit takes up most of the first floor, and they really are beautiful. Of course, the exhibit may just be to show foreigners what they want (the subjects are usually in traditional garb, temples are usually the focus of nature paintings), but I must admit I was a little disappointed to see that some of the figures in their paintings had a very Western look (at least their face shape, skin color). Some of these scrolls were almost floor-to-ceiling, especially one set of four scrolls that took up most of the wall depicting mountains. One section was also devoted to Greek statues, with the exception of a huge stone bust of Mao. Another section held a massive collection (at least three or four rooms’ worth) of an Chinese artist whose style was clearly Westernized (nude subjects, “Girl With Pearl Earring”-esue paintings). There was also one section for modern paintings, which have never really been a favorite of mine, but to each his own…

The second floor was completely dedicated to one artist who focused on the mountain terrain. The best way I can describe it is that it was kind of like impressionism, only with a twist. From afar, you could see the mountainside in all its beauty, but close up, it really did look like scribbles. It’s funny that I didn’t appreciate them as much as I could have, considering Monet is my favorite artist.

The third floor held a collection of what I think were pages of stories from the 1910s, before the revolution, with watercolor illustrations on one side and Chinese hanzi on the other. Unfortunately, this was the one area where we were not allowed to take pictures, which was too bad because it was the oldest collection in the museum. Another portion of that floor was the eclectic art collection of a German couple (very surprising for a Chinese museum); the pieces were from many different styles of art (everything from a German Picasso-lookalike to Renaissance). Lastly, there was a collection of blue painted vases with Chinese landscapes (mountains, temples). I loved vases that had deep blue-green colors, or particularly ones that mainly a blue background with the exception of red leaves on the blue trees. The combination of the two colors really made the vases pop out at visitors.

The last floor was by far the most interesting one to me- there were two exhibits, the first dedicated to the wax-block printing by those in the Guizhong province, which looks like blue calico. The designs were beautiful and very intricate, including patterns with birds, fish, and flowers. I don’t know how people can make those designs by hand with that level of intricacy. Along with the pieces cut from baby carriers, scarves and shirtsleeves, there were also full traditional outfits on display. Nou also told me that many Hmong traditional outfits have the same patterns, but they take up the full length of the skirt. The other side was devoted to “Dreaming” (a type of Aboriginal tapestries from Australia, which I thought was a little odd (an exhibit devoted to Australia in China?) but again it was nicely done. There were tapestries hanging on every inch of the room, decorated in “orange blossom” patterns and the occasional lizard.

Although I enjoyed my visit, I was a little disappointed in the museum. I really was expecting exhibits from ancient dynasties, and none existed. The exhibit that featured its oldest collection was the stories from the 1910s; this museum really was quite modern considering the extent of China’s history. I would have like to see some artifacts from the Tang dynasty, or something along those lines, but perhaps there is another museum where I can find what I’m looking for. The only other complaint that I had was that very few (perhaps three or four) displays had English translations next to the Chinese description of the exhibit. I would like to know the title of a piece of art that I find interesting, but I couldn’t because my Chinese is limited to “people”, “student”, “busy” and “I am American”. I suggested that we just make stories up about each piece, but that didn’t go over too well!