There's a famous joke about the China National Art Museum.

A Western art scholar who is an avid museum-goer made her first visit to Beijing a few years ago.

"I would love to see the national art museum of China," she told her Chinese friend, a veteran art professor who traveled abroad often.

Having been to many famous art museums, the "patriotic" Chinese professor understood that his friend would be disappointed to see the shabby venue that could hardly be called a "museum" in the eyes of a Westerner, let alone a national one.

So he told her a lie: "Oh, I am sorry. Unfortunately, the museum is closed these days for a renovation."

The anecdote might be fictional but the professor's response was certainly understandable.

But there is inspiring news for visitors from home and abroad - the China National Art Museum has indeed undergone a thorough renovation over the past 15 months and is now working towards becoming a leading museum of modern and contemporary art.

Tomorrow, a grand ceremony will announce the reopening of the 40-year-old museum, the inauguration of five permanent exhibitions and the opening of a special exhibition of contemporary Chinese art.

Following the ceremony, a three-day symposium called "Social Transformation and Artistic Evolution" will also be held at the museum, attracting more than 40 leading art scholars and museum administrators from across China.

Insiders also revealed that the construction of a new wing to the west of the museum, which will be twice the size of the present building, is being planned and will be completed by 2007, before the Beijing Olympic Games.

Museum reborn

"The year 2003 is certainly a milestone in the history of the China National Art Museum," said Shui Tianzhong, a leading art critic and former director of the Institute of Fine Arts under the Chinese Academy of Arts.

"This is not only because it has much better facilities. From now on, the museum will have permanent displays of its art collections - the most important feature of an art museum," Shui said.

Designed by architect Dai Nianci, the museum was one of 10 landmark projects built in the Chinese capital during late 1950s to mark the 10th anniversary of New China in 1959. It houses more than 60,000 valuable works.

"But, because of the limitation of architectural concepts in the 1950s and the inefficient economic capacity then, the building's quality was not high enough and the interior design was not satisfactory for permanent displays of collections," said Yang Lizhou, director of the museum. "After 40 years, the interior facilities have become outdated and are worn, too."

For those four decades, the art museum has mainly been an art gallery. More often than not it has hosted temporary exhibitions and rarely displayed its own collections.

After the recent renovation, which cost 150 million yuan (US$18 million), the second and third floors of the building have been refurbished and turned into venues exclusively for permanent displays of the museum's works.

The first floor of the building still hosts temporary exhibitions that will be carefully selected. The fourth floor has been renovated into a modern conference hall.

Among the current exhibitions of collections is "100 Years of Fine Arts: Masterpieces in the Collection of the China National Art Museum," which features more than 100 selected works by 100 famous artists from the 20th century.

Other shows include an exhibition of paper-cuts, an earth sculptures exhibition, a collection of Western art works donated by the Ludwig family in Germany, and an exhibition of works produced and donated by the late sculptor Liu Kaiqu.

"Usually these exhibitions will be showing for at least one year and we only change some of the works on a rotational basis," said Yang.

One prominent feature is a detailed chronology of Chinese art in the 20th century with images on a wall at the entrance, while photographs and biographies of the artists are provided under their works.

"We hope the artists are respected like stars and the visitors can learn more about the history of modern Chinese art through the works in our collections," said Yang.

To create a more comfortable environment for visitors and to better preserve the works, some offices and warehouses on the second and third floors have been transformed into small exhibition halls and two of the exhibition halls on the first floor have been expanded. The total number of exhibition halls has increased from 14 to 21.

Centralized air conditioning is now in all exhibition halls. Both indoor lighting and natural light are available in some of the exhibition areas to produce a better visual effect. Movable walls and window cases have been added to the side halls on the first floor and some small exhibition halls. Visitors can also take a rest on seats in the halls and turn to the guards and guides in uniform for assistance.

"Walking on the floors of stone or wood, showered by the pleasant lighting and enjoying the gorgeous art works, I indeed feel I am in a palace of art," said Dong Mei, a Beijing editor who has had the opportunity to preview the museum.

According to Yang, the Chinese Ministry of Culture has decided to allocate an extra 50 million yuan (US$6 million yuan) each year to help the China National Art Museum build a larger and better collection of Chinese art.

"This strategic move will be an important impetus to the national art museum's further prosperity," said Yang.

Open stance

Experts such as Liu Xilin and Xu Hong noticed more than a physical transformation of the National Art Museum. "What's equally noticeable is its increasing openness to Chinese new art, a gesture that is conveyed by the upcoming exhibition 'Open Era'," remarked Liu, a veteran art scholar and painter in Beijing.

After the controversial Chinese Modern Art Exhibition in 1989, the museum has been very cautious about hosting cutting-edge contemporary exhibitions.

For over a decade, experimental art works in the form of installations, videos and performances have primarily been ruled out. As a result, the museum was often labelled "conservative" and "old-fashioned."

In the current exhibition, installation and video works by contemporary artists such as Cai Guoqiang, Xu Bing, Lu Shenzhong and Song Dong will be featured. This is the first time since 1989 that these artists, who have been internationally recognized, have been invited to show their works at the national museum.

"We look at these types of works more from a historic point of view, rather than an ideological perspective," said Xu Hong, director of the museum's research department, who herself is an active artist and scholar of contemporary art. "This exhibition is a review of the history of Chinese contemporary art since the 1980s. We don't have to avoid showing certain types of art that have actually existed and been well accepted already."

Still inspiring is the museum's attempt to introduce an international museum management mode.

"In Western museums, a curator is responsible for every aspect of an exhibition such as research, display, preservation and even fund-raising. But in Chinese art museums like this one, such functions are separated to different departments, which is not desirable for efficiency," Xu said.

"But it will be difficult for the national museum to have its own curators in the near future if the whole administrative system does not change. We are experimenting with new methods."

Among the important moves are establishing a curatorial committee that consists of scholars and inviting curators from outside the museum to organize exhibitions.

Some experts also suggest the museum should strengthen its role as a centre for public art education and communication by encouraging the more active involvement of the general public.

So far, the museum does not have an education department, a publication or a website. As a result, it is very difficult for the public to have access to information on exhibitions and programmes at the museum.

The reopening of the museum's doors is actually only the start of a long journey for it to become a world-class facility.

(China Daily July 22, 2003)