At the beginning of the new year, although it is not the peak exhibition season, many museums and other art institutions across the country still launch colorful and beautiful cultural museums "the first exhibition of the year".
Most of these exhibitions are not super exhibitions, but they are full of sincerity, or unfolding a section of China's distant civilization, or picking up a wave of the world's artistic river, or reliving the rich New Year culture at a special moment to welcome the old and the new. They all use cultural relics and artworks as the carrier to show human beings' admiration and pursuit of "beautiful things" and the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage. This force born of beauty and warmth also inspires people entering the New Year.
【Exploring China】
Looking at the five thousand years from top to bottom, looking at the east, west, south, north and middle, cultural relics demonstrate the pattern of diversity and integration of Chinese civilization
From a longitudinal point of view, the successive discoveries of Chinese archaeology over the past hundred years have proved that the Chinese civilization of 5,000 years is not a legend and has never been interrupted. In recent years, exploring the origin of Chinese civilization has also become a major hit in cultural exhibitions, inspiring people's national pride. There are many of them in this "first exhibition of the opening year", and interestingly, they all chose jade as an important lead.
Gathering 450 exhibits from 15 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country and 48 cultural and museum units, the Shaanxi History Museum will launch "Yuyun Kyushu - The Collision and Convergence of Early Chinese Civilizations", using jade artifacts spanning thousands of miles and spanning nearly 10,000 years as the carrier to interpret the profound connotation of Chinese civilization that is eclectic and inclusive. The exhibition takes the main body of regional civilizations such as Hongshan, Water Town, Zeguo, Liangzhu, the Kingdom of Middle Earth, the Tao Temple, the City of Ravines, and Shibian as the core of the narrative, and takes the profound concepts and strong emotions carried by the imperial ritual vessels as clues, sketching the magnificent picture of China's prehistoric jade culture.
The "Bright Starlight-Lingjiatan Cultural Exhibition" in the new hall of the Anhui Museum was unveiled, and 194 pieces of jade, stone tools, pottery and other exhibits collected by seven cultural institutions including the Palace Museum, Anhui Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology were selected, realizing the first concentrated "appearance" of cultural relics unearthed at the Lingjiatan site. The Lingjiatan site dates from 5800 to 5300 years ago, and is the largest and most complete Neolithic central settlement site in the Chaohu basin in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Among them, the high-specification jade tools unearthed here represent the highest level of jade culture in the Yangtze River Basin of the Neolithic period, so the Lingjiatan culture, Hongshan culture and Liangzhu culture are called the "three prehistoric jade culture centers". This exhibition especially promotes the comparative display of Lingjiatan jade, Hongshan jade, Liangzhu jade, etc., and also involves the Beiyinyangying culture and Songze culture, which are also located in the Yangtze River Delta region, so that people can see the diversity, complexity and unity of Chinese civilization, and the sense of identity and dependence between various cultures.
"Yu Yu Wenya - Western Zhou and Jin National Jade Fine Exhibition" landed at the Liangzhu Museum in Hangzhou, presenting another peak that Chinese jade culture has climbed from prehistory to the Western Zhou Dynasty. More than 170 pieces (groups) of cultural relics from the Shanxi Institute of Archaeology (Shanxi Archaeological Museum), Shanxi Museum and Jin Guo Museum gathered in this exhibition, most of them from the Jin Marquis cemetery in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The discovery and excavation of the Jinhou cemetery was selected as one of China's "100 Archaeological Discoveries in a Hundred Years", and the jade artifacts with complete composition, rich utensils, well-made and dazzling varieties are the most important components of the archaeological achievements of the Jinhou cemetery.
Portrait of Northern Zhao jade, exhibit of Hangzhou Liangzhu Museum's "Yu Yu Wenya - Western Zhou and Jin Kingdom Jade Boutique Exhibition"
From a horizontal point of view, China has a vast territory, and different geographical environments have given birth to a variety of unique regional history and culture, and the rich color scale of the "first exhibition of the opening year" has also become a vivid footnote to the breadth and depth of Chinese civilization.
The civilization of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River has created a thousand-year-old cultural context of Jiangnan water towns, which can be described as an important source of Chinese civilization. Gathering about 250 sets (pieces) of exhibits selected by ten cultural and museum institutions in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Nanjing Museum launched the "Great River Ancient Stream - Special Exhibition of Civilization in the Lower Yangtze River", showing the origin and development process of civilization in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the material and spiritual evidence of material and spiritual civilization during the peak period of culture, and the colorful light and shadow of current urban civilization. From the seven-hole stone knife of the new era unearthed at the site of Beiyinyangying in Nanjing to the copper smoke of the head of the dragon of the Six Dynasties unearthed from the Sun Wu Tomb of Tiger Hill in Suzhou, from the bronze mirror of playing polo in the Tang Dynasty unearthed in the Hanjiang River in Yangzhou to the floral pattern of the Southern Song Dynasty vermilion lacquered golden lotus petal figure unearthed in the Southern Song Tomb in Wujin District, Changzhou, all of them have witnessed the continuous extension of thousands of years of brilliant civilization in this land.
Hetian, known as Khotan in ancient times, was one of the thirty-six states of the Western Regions of the Han Dynasty and an important town on the South Silk Road. The "Five Stars Out of the East - Hotan Historical Relics Exhibition" at the China Millennium Monument in Beijing draws people's attention to the unique and colorful history and culture of ancient Hotan, and tells the stories of ethnic exchanges, exchanges and blending presented by the Silk Road. The exhibition gathers more than 220 cultural relics from Hotan Regional Museum, China Museum of Nationalities, Capital Museum, Xinjiang Museum, Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, China National Silk Museum, Gansu Jianmu Museum, Lushun Museum, Chinese Minmin University Museum and other collection institutions, reliving the historical fact that in the long process of historical development, the fate of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, including the Hotan people, has always been closely linked to the fate of the great motherland and the Chinese nation.
Fragment of hunting strip fur belt, exhibit of "Five Stars Out of the East - Hotan Historical Relics Exhibition" at the China Millennium Monument in Beijing
Located in the southeast of the mainland, Fujian and Taiwan have extremely close ties in terms of geography, blood and cultural origin, and cross-strait economic and cultural exchanges can be traced back to the Stone Age. More than 400 Fujian-Taiwan art exhibits gathered at the National Museum of China's "Origins and Origins - Fujian-Taiwan Art Exhibition", telling the long-lasting tenderness of Fujian and Taiwan from different aspects such as opera, folk art and arts and crafts, literature, calligraphy, and fine arts. The Quanzhou City Museum on display has quite local characteristics, such as the Qing Dynasty Golden Gate Wind Lion Ye Gate Pottery Lantern Base, and the Fujian Museum's Zangjiang Jia Walking Carved Puppet Head.
The scene of the National Museum of China "Yuan·Yuan - Fujian-Taiwan Art Exhibition"
As the ancient local governments of the north and south, the Bohai State and the Southern Han Kingdom intersected in the "North-South Confluence - Cultural Relics Exhibition of the Bohai State and the Southern Han Kingdom" at the Nanyue King Museum in Guangzhou. The Bohai State was a local government in the northeastern region of the Tang Dynasty, while the Southern Han Kingdom was one of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, located in the three provinces of present-day Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan. They are thousands of miles apart and have little intersection, but they all contributed to the historical process of consolidating vast geographical territory, promoting regional development, realizing multi-ethnic and cross-regional cultural exchanges, and creating a unified multi-ethnic country under the influence of the unified Tang Dynasty. The exhibition selects 178 cultural relics from the Nanyue King Museum, the Bohai Sea Beijing Site Museum of Heilongjiang Province, and the Guangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, comprehensively displaying the political, economic, cultural, religious and foreign exchanges between the Bohai Kingdom and the Southern Han Kingdom.
There are also some "first exhibitions of the opening year" that select an unknown angle of Chinese culture to excavate and tell the "small but beautiful" Chinese story. For example, the Palace Museum has launched a new "Guozi Cultural Context - Joint Exhibition of Culture and Art of Successive Jinshi Dynasties", which borrows 179 important works of the Jinshi group since the Tang Dynasty to let the audience understand the interrelationship of "self-cultivation, unity of family, governance of the country, and peace in the world" in Chinese culture, as well as the reasons and mission of the "family and country feelings" of the Chinese people since ancient times. "Sacrifice as in the Ming and Qing Dynasty Statues" was launched at the China Arts and Crafts Museum and the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum, with the Ming and Qing Ancestral Statues as symbols of ancestor worship and the material carrier of family emotions, observing traditional genes, national spirit, and family bloodline. "Focus: Adaptation of Chinese and Western Visual Arts in the 18th and 19th Centuries" at the Guangdong Provincial Museum of Art is the first panoramic interpretation of Chinese export paintings in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
【Overseas Hunting】
From ancient Greek and Roman civilizations to Raphael and Van Gogh, the energy of beauty has passed through time and borders
Together with world-class museums such as the British Museum and the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, we can enjoy the charm of world civilization in more and more museums and galleries throughout the country. Moreover, the immersive installation that pays attention to the atmosphere creation makes the audience feel more immersed in the exhibition.
The former landed in the "Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes - Special Exhibition of Ancient Greek Cultural Relics in the British Museum" in the West Building of the Suzhou Museum, and the latter parachuted into the "Stunning Place: Collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples" at the Pudong Art Museum in Shanghai, and all interpreted stories different from familiar stories under the ingenious curatorial ideas.
The British Museum's collection of 177 pieces (sets) of ancient Greek artifacts constitutes a magnificent lineup of the "Ancient Greeks" exhibition. The keyword "competition" and three different characters – athlete, warrior and hero – string together the narrative thread of the exhibition. Whether in sports, theater, war, politics or everyday life, the ancient Greeks were known for their competitive nature. While these activities are often conflict-based, competition also has a positive cohesive force, resulting in a thriving culture and valuable exchange of ideas. The many artifacts on display, from terracotta carvings of childhood sheep and sheep to beautifully decorated tomb fragments, from vivid statues of comedians to bronze figurines of runners in various shapes, from well-made bronze armor to dazzling chalcedony gemstones, the goddess of victory, all demonstrate the competitive spirit carved in the bones of the ancient Greeks.
Achilles preparing to ambush Trojanus, circa 500 BC, Athens, Suzhou Museum West Building, "Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes – A Special Exhibition of Ancient Greek Antiquities in the British Museum"
The first large-scale collaboration between the National Museum of Archaeology of Naples and a Chinese institution of modern and contemporary art resulted in the "Stunning Place: Collection of the National Museum of Archaeology of Naples" at the Pudong Art Museum in Shanghai, which gathers nearly 70 rare treasures and is a grand display of ancient Roman civilization more than 2,000 years ago. "Beauty" is the theme that runs through this exhibition, divided into three units: "Love and Beauty", "Power and Beauty" and "Home and Beauty", showing the infinite energy transmitted by "beauty" across borders, cultures, languages and other limitations, and its eternal and profound relationship with human beings. Many of the Italian national treasures are the first to leave their home countries for overseas exhibitions. People can feel from the exhibition that the concept of "beauty" not only exists in ancient Roman sculpture, but also in daily necessities, and even pervades every corner of ancient Rome.
View of the "Stunning Beauty: Collection of the National Museum of Archaeology of Naples" at the Pudong Art Museum, Shanghai
"From Botticelli to Van Gogh: Collection of the National Gallery of England" at the Shanghai Museum and "Seeing and Gaze: A Selection of Western Paintings from the Fuji Museum of Tokyo" at the Liaoning Provincial Museum's New Year's Eve exhibition "Seeing and Gaze – A Selection of Western Paintings from the Fuji Museum of Art in Tokyo" both opened up a condensed history of Western art.
The 52 oil paintings in the "From Botticelli to Van Gogh" exhibition cover works by European masters such as Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Gosett, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Claude, Constable, Cézanne, Manet, Monet and Van Gogh in the collection of the National Gallery, presenting 400 years of European art history. The National Gallery is one of the top ten most popular art museums in the world, and its collection is rarely exhibited elsewhere. The exhibition is the first of its kind in China in the National Gallery's collection, and many of the exhibits are textbook-quality masterpieces, such as Caravaggio's dramatic "The Lizard-bitten Boy", Rembrandt's self-portrait "Self-portrait at 63" in the last year of his life, and Van Gogh's "Long Meadow and Butterflies" shortly before his suicide.
Renoir's Umbrella, Shanghai Museum "From Botticelli to Van Gogh: The National Gallery Collection"
"Looking and Gaze" carefully selects 60 classic portrait paintings by 52 well-known artists in the history of Western art in the collection of the Fuji Museum in Tokyo, outlining the outline of 500 years of Western art history from the Renaissance, Methodism or Mannerism, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Critical Realism, Impressionism, and all stages of modernism.
Sargent's Portrait of Mrs. Harold Wilson, Liaoning Provincial Museum's "Looking and Gaze: A Selection of Western Paintings from the Fuji Museum of Art, Tokyo"
The atmosphere of European social life has also crossed to China.
Painted with a European-style retro wall with Burgundy red as the main color, Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum's "Treasure Collection - British V&A Museum Collection Gilbert Boutique Exhibition" takes the audience back to the exquisite life of European society in the 16th and 19th centuries. In the past four hundred years, Europe was the era of the courtly aristocracy pursuing a luxurious life, the era of the new bourgeoisie incarnating celebrities shuttling through social occasions, the era of the "grand tour" after the Renaissance, and the era of Europeans traveling far and wide to discover the new world. The exhibition presents 90 pieces (sets) from the collection of the British V&A Museum represented by gold and silver ware, snuff boxes, enamel portraits and miniature mosaics, combining scene restoration, art installations and multimedia to present the trends, aesthetics and design styles of this era. The collection is from Arthur Gilbert, a 20th-century European collector known for his private collection of decorative arts.
Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum "Treasure Collection - British V&A Museum Collection Gilbert Boutique Exhibition" site
Through the velvet curtain, "Floating Paris: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec" at the Aurora Museum in Shanghai offers a journey of modern French art in Paris a century ago. A promotional poster designed for the Moulin Rouge opened the name of the protagonist of the exhibition, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The artist is both a post-impressionist painter and a pioneer of modern poster design and lithography, known as the "soul of Montmartre". Nearly 120 sets of more than 230 precious collections related to Lautrec, including representative poster works such as "Jane Avril in the Garden of Paris", "Japanese Sofa Cafe" and "El Dorado: Aristide Bruente", book, magazine and sheet music covers and illustrations, precious manuscripts, autographs and old photographs of the artist's creative ideas, fully present the bustling Paris recorded by the artist with his brush, and get a glimpse of how Lautrec became a mirror of the times, an observer and recorder of life. Innovator in art and design.
View of the "Floating Paris: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Art Exhibition" at the Aurora Museum, Shanghai
【Sense the taste of the year】
Or focus on the zodiac culture, or look at the traditional culture of the New Year, and read the simple prayers of the people for the new year and new atmosphere
The 2023 New Year and the Chinese Spring Festival in the Year of the Rabbit are approaching, and recently, many museums have launched a "taste of the New Year" banquet, either focusing on the zodiac culture, or looking at the New Year culture, leading the public to use art as a carrier to welcome the Spring Festival and read the simple prayers of the people for the new year and new atmosphere.
The long-standing zodiac culture is closely related to the Tiangandi branch, and is also closely related to the animal totem worship psychology of the ancients. The upcoming Lunar New Year is the Year of the Rabbit, and rabbits have become the protagonists of many cultural exhibitions. This vivid and cute animal image is not only closely related to the real life and future vision of human beings, but also is said to be the genus of the moon god, and has auspicious connotations such as spitting spring blossoms and abundant food and clothing. "Jade Rabbit Spirit - Shanghai Museum Year of the Rabbit Spring Exhibition" landed in Shanghai Museum, with rabbit Zun and double rabbit car scale decorations from the Western Zhou, white-glazed rabbits in the Tang Dynasty, green jade rabbit paperweights from the Southern Song Dynasty, crystal rabbits in the Yuan Dynasty and jade rabbits in the Qing Dynasty, and the axis of the "Three Rabbits of Ladies" by Qing Dynasty painter Yu Zhiding showing the long-term observation and love of rabbits by ancient people. Tianjin Museum, Jilin Provincial Museum and other more than 50 cultural and museum institutions across the country jointly ushered in the "2023 Lunar Year of the Rabbit New Year Zodiac Cultural Relics Picture Joint Exhibition", selecting 319 rabbit-themed cultural relics covering jade, porcelain, bronze, painting, paper cutting, embroidery, New Year painting and other art categories, respectively telling about rabbits in natural ecology, rabbits in history and culture and rabbits in folk culture. Selected the collection of zodiac animal fine cultural relics and artworks, Henan Museum with the "Twelve Zodiac Greetings to the Great Year - Lunar New Year Zodiac Cultural Exhibition". These exquisite zodiac cultural relics on display allow people to perceive the examination, appreciation, understanding, conception and fantasy of the Chinese ancestors for the zodiac animals, and the beautiful yearning for the abundance of grains and the prosperity of the six animals.
Southern Song Dynasty green jade rabbit paperweight, Shanghai Museum "Jade Rabbit Spirit - Shanghai Museum Year of the Rabbit Spring Exhibition" exhibits
The broad and profound New Year culture, prosperous and joyful, fully depicts the people's yearning for a better life. More than 300 special New Year painting collections from museums and art galleries in Wuqiang, Tianjin, Yangliuqing, Weifang, Zhuxian Town, Suzhou, Mianzhu, Sichuan, Foshan and other places are being collected in the special exhibition "China in New Year Paintings" in the Guangdong Provincial Museum, bringing people the solace of welcoming the new year. Among them are Fu, Lu, Shou, Xi, Wealth, and god statues that pray for blessings, Kuixing, Confucius, and Zhuangyuanlang who protect candidates, delicate beauties, fat dolls, and four-hour customs that carry memories and nostalgia, as well as drama and serial New Year paintings that love to tell stories. The Shanghai Museum of History will launch "Shanghai New Year, Beautiful Life - Exhibition of New Year Cultural Relics in the Collection of Shanghai Museum of History", inviting visitors to explore New Year customs, find fun in the New Year, and make fun of the New Year.
Qing Zhu Dingxin's "New Year Picture Screen Axis", a special exhibition of "China in New Year Paintings" of Guangdong Provincial Museum
Author: Fan Xin
Curated by: Shao Ling
Responsible editor: Wang Xueying
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source for reprinting.