Art in China

From our recent trip to Beijing, there are two art related "stories" that I wish to relate to you.



I bought what I think is a very beautiful piece of art one day while wandering Tian Shan Park; I had already been to the temple during my last visit, and so we just wandered around. While on our walk through the park, JCS and I were approached by a young woman with pretty good English speaking skills. She conveyed to us that she, her professors, and many other students were currently exhibiting their artwork in one of the park's outbuildings, and invited us to come and see. Expecting him to say "no thank you," I was pleased when he agreed, and we followed her to a nearby building. Once inside, we looked over walls covered with scroll artwork of varying kinds. There were pieces of work that were done in an ancient style (with only black ink, or traditional subjects such as mountain sceneries) and there were more modern, stark canvases done in oil paints. My attention was completely arrested by some truly vivid work. This artist works with watercolors and traditional symbols. Where she departs from the tradition is in her use of salt to move the water color paint around. This photo does not do it justice. It gives me great pleasure to look at it every day. Perhaps I should have purchased a smaller work or two of hers as well.

The second art story took place on the same day. After unsuccessfully trying to get into the Museum of Natural History, we had lunch, regrouped in the hotel, and then headed out to the Beijing Art Museum. While we have been to the Tate Modern, art museum's are not our regular haunts while traveling.

We have different rates at which we view art, so we separated for the duration of the visit. There was a tremendous collection of new art that was based on traditional subjects, and techniques. There was also quite a gathering of middle aged women who edged close to the scrolls to examine the techniques and then discuss them with their fellow painters. Many of the works were huge and truly amazing others, less so in my opinion.


I loved the fact that photographs were allowed, as long as the flash feature of the camera was suppressed. This allowed me to take a couple of photos of one work of art that really caught my attention. I was arrested by the vividness of the faces in this piece of work (just look at their expressions!) I spent a long time in front of this work. I post some of them here for your consideration.