An Introduction to the National Art Museum of China

An Introduction to the National Art Museum of China

The National Art Museum of China is located at 1, Wusi Avenue, Dongcheng District of Beijing with Longfu Temple to the west, the Imperial Palace Wall Relics Park to the east and Wangfujing Avenue to the south, and it dedicates itself to collecting, researching and exhibiting Chinese modern artistic works. As an imitated attic-style architecture, the museum is surrounded by winding corridors with a yellow glazed roof, which is of distinctive national characteristics.

The five-storied National Art Museum of China occupies an area of 22,379 square meters with an exhibition area of 7,000 square meters, boasting 20 exhibiting halls in total, 9 of which are available on the first story. There are three small exhibit halls on the interlayer (between the first story and the second story) with a total exhibit area of 4,305 square meters. The third story holds three exhibit halls with a total exhibit area of 863 square meters.

More than 100,000 pieces of works of art are collected in the museum, most of which were created by famous artists who were born after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, and some works were created by the renowned artists from the Ming, the Qing dynasties and Republic of China period, including Ren Bonian, Wu Changshuo, Huang Binhong, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Jiang Zhaohe, Situ Qiao, Li Keran, Wu Zuoren, Ye Qianyu, Luo Gongliu and Wu Guanzhong. The collections in the museum are rich and colorful, including painting works, painted sculptures, porcelains, new-year pictures, paper-cuttings, toys, shadow figures, puppets, kites, embroideries and show props. There are 117 pieces of western works of art donated by German collectors in the museum, 4 of which were drawn by Picasso, and over 100 African wood sculptures are well preserved in the museum.

Besides domestic art exhibitions, over 1,000 international art exhibitions have been successfully held in the National Art Museum of China, including the 19th Century France Rural Landscape Picture Exhibition, the Original Painting Works of Picasso, German Expressionistic Printing Works Exhibition, Marc Chagall’s (a Russian-born French Painter and Stained Glass Artist) Art Exhibition, the French Impressionist Painting Works Exhibition and African Art Exhibition. In addition, a number of works written by the museum staff have been successively published in recent years, including the Collection Set of the National Art Museum of China, the Ren Bonian’s Collection of Works, Qi Baishi’s Collection of Works, Huang Binhong’s Collection of Works and the Fifty-Year of Chinese Arts and Chinese Art Yearbook.