He Art Museum makes ‘gutsy’ China arts push in industrial Foshan from buzai232's blog

After five years of planning, a pandemic and a failed kidnapping, the He Art Museum, China’s buzziest new private arts venue in Guangdong province, is finally welcoming visitors.To get more china art news, you can visit shine news official website.

Initially delayed by the COVID-19 outbreak, which scuttled its planned mid-March unveiling, it was then almost derailed by a June kidnapping attempt on the founders of the Midea electronics empire – 78-year-old He Xiangjian and his son, the museum’s founder 55-year-old He Jianfeng – at a nearby villa complex.But with the drama behind them and China one of the countries currently least-affected by the coronavirus, the He Art Museum [HEM] opened its doors in the southern city of Foshan in October – during China’s National Day.

Shao Shu, executive director of HEM, told Al Jazeera that the He family hopes the venue can showcase a balance between Chinese, Lingnan – roughly Cantonese – and Western artistic cultures and further develop art and culture in the family’s hometown; a city better known at the moment for its vast factory-scapes than for art.“HEM would like to turn private enjoyment into public pleasure,” he said.

The family commissioned world-renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando to design the glass-walled concrete building, which was inspired partly by the region’s traditional earthen roundhouses.Tucked away behind trees – opposite Midea’s headquarters and a small building housing offices, restaurants and high-end tea shops – the 16,000 square metre (172,223 square feet) structure includes two sweeping staircases spiralling around a light-filled central courtyard that forms the heart of the museum.
The venue has begun to showcase pieces from the family’s own collection, built up over the past 10 years and including about 500 works, three-quarters of them either Chinese traditional or contemporary art and the remainder from the west.

The opening exhibition, curated by Feng Boyi, is called Mundane World featuring scenes and materials from daily life – coloured box rooms full of light fixtures and a “mundane canteen” filled with artifacts from Shunde culinary traditions. Other rooms include sculptures ranging from a set of large tractor-like wheels made of everyday materials by artist Yin Xiuzhen, to an installation by Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum – a world map made from clear glass marbles that fills the floor.

There are also several rooms of Lingnan art pieces featuring snowy landscapes and water buffalo.From the HEM collection itself is the impressive PixCell Deer by Kohei Nawa, built out of clear and golden glass bubbles and other materials, it stands on its own as visitors turn a corner between gallery rooms.The museum adds to the growing number of private and publicly financed art museums in China as the country stakes its claim to become a global cultural powerhouse.
In the past 40 years, the number of art museums in China has ballooned from just a few hundred to more than 5,000, according to statistics from China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration.

“From my perspective, museum growth – both public and private sector – is an exciting development and good for enriching community, culture, education, and civic pride,” Meg Maggio, director of Pekin Fine Arts gallery in Beijing and Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera from Boston.

Previous post     
     Next post
     Blog home

The Wall

No comments
You need to sign in to comment