A Date with Monet in Wuhan

Text & photos by Xu Kuang

The priceless impressionist C l a u d e M o n e t, t h e abstractionist Pablo Picasso, the fauvist painter Henri Matisse, and Pierre Soulages’outrenoir… A collection of 51 pieces of artwork in different genres, worth over 500 million euros, were exhibited in Wuhan and every piece being exhibited was the original work of the artists.

Zhang Shan, a graduate of the Sculpture Department of Hubei Academy of Fine Arts,who now works in Shanghai,told us about the moment she learned of the exhibit. “I saw the news in my WeChat moments that the authentic work of Monet and Picasso will be exhibited in Wuhan. Then I decided immediately that I’d come back to Wuhan to appreciate them.”On January 14, 2018, she and her friend lined up for nearly an hour to enter the museum. “But this is Monet! It’s worth it even if the queue is longer. ”

On December 29, 2017, the exhibition entitled From Monet to Soulages: Paths of Modern Western Painting (1805 – 1975)was opened at the Wuhan Art Museum. The artworks are the rare collections from the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Saint-étienne Métropole.

It is also an integral part of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Wuhan Art Museum, as well as the 20th anniversary of the French Consulate General in Wuhan.

Before the opening, the exhibition had already become a hot topic of Wuhan citizens’Wechat moments. Only in the first three days of 2018, more than 10,000 visitors attended the exhibition though the average queuing time was more than two hours. This was a scene that had never been witnessed in the past 10 years since the museum had been renovated.

Considering the safety of the artworks and the comfort of the viewers, the Wuhan Art Museum controlled its ticket release on weekends, but it couldn’t dampen people’s enthusiasm.

Like Zhang Shan, many travelled to Wuhan only to appreciate these authentic masterpieces. Some of them even paid a visit together with all their family members. Fan Feng, the curator, was deeply impressed,“Appreciation of the arts requires the proper mentality. With the improvement of people’s living standards, they are expected to appreciate the good and the beautiful more. Art is gradually immersing the hearts of our people. It implies that Wuhan is progressing in both its economy and society, and it also manifests the fact that the social demand for art popularization and exchange has increased over the years.”

“天价”莫奈、抽象毕加索、“野兽”马蒂斯、苏拉热“黑画”，十余种艺术流派华丽亮相，共展出51幅作品，总价值5亿欧元，每一幅都是艺术家所绘真迹。

张珊，湖北美术学院雕塑系毕业，现在上海工作，“早就在朋友圈看到消息，武汉有莫奈、毕加索真迹展出，当时就决定要抽空来武汉看展。”2018年1月14日，她和朋友排队近一个小时，才进入馆内。“这可是莫奈啊，排队时间再长也值。”

2017年12月29日，来自法国圣埃蒂安大都会现当代艺术博物馆（MAMC+）的国家级巨制馆藏展“从莫奈到苏拉热——西方现代绘画之路（1805-1975）”，在武汉美术馆开幕。

这是庆祝武汉美术馆30岁生日的重头戏，也是纪念法国驻武汉总领事馆2018年开馆二十周年的重要活动。

该展开展之前就已刷屏武汉市民的朋友圈，2018年元旦三天，观展人数就达10000余人，观众要排两个多小时的队才能进入展厅，这是武汉美术馆开馆10年来从未有过的场面。

考虑到作品安全和观展体验，武汉美术馆实行双休日限流领票制度，尽管如此，观众排队看展热情依然不减。

像张珊这样从外地赶来专为一睹真迹的不在少数，还有不少扶老携幼、举家前来。这让馆长樊枫感慨不已，“欣赏艺术需要心情，这说明随着生活水平的提高，人们对真善美的追求更高了，艺术逐渐渗透人心。这背后，是武汉经济社会繁荣的积累，更是公共文化艺术多年的沉淀。”

此次展出的51件作品，梳理西方绘画从19世纪初到20世纪末的历史脉络，向观众展示其中丰富多变的艺术形式。

观众可以看到多位耳熟能详的艺术大师的作品，如库尔贝、莫奈、马蒂斯、毕加索、苏拉热等，还能结识其他为西方绘画做出重要贡献的艺术家。

莫奈一生画了约250幅《睡莲》，其中仅有4幅圆形构图的《睡莲》。本次展出的就有其中一幅，它是圣埃蒂安大都会博物馆镇馆之宝，《睡莲》也以近2亿元人民币的超高保价，首次来到武汉。

观众在圆形《睡莲》前驻足Visitors looking at the painting Nymphéas (or Water Lilies) by Claude Monet

现场看到，与其他画作可近距离观赏不同，《睡莲》仅可在围栏外远观，不少观众伸长脖子想尽可能近地观看。睡莲、水面、花朵和树叶的颜色对比让空间无限打开，环形画面的形式也让视觉范围更为集中，再次放大空间的观感。

The 51 pieces of artwork on exhibition provide the visitors with the varieties of art forms of the western world, storylining the general development of western painting from the early 19th century to the end of the 20th century.

Viewers themselves were able to appreciate the paintings by the well-known artists such as Courbet, Monet, Matisse, Picasso,and Soulages, and learn much about other artists who also made great contributions to western painting on the spot.

Throughout his entire life Monet painted about 250 pieces ofWater Lilies, of which only four were round-framed. This exhibition has one of them.This most treasured piece of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Saintétienne Métropole made its debut in Wuhan at an insured value of RMB 200 million.

Unlike other paintings, this particular painting was fenced so that viewers could only see it at a distance. Many stretched their necks over the fence to get as close as possible. The contrast of colors of the lilies, water, flowers,and leaves make the space look unlimited, and the round frame allows the visual to be more focused, once again enlarging the space perception.

Alphonse Osbert’s paintingSolitudeshows a poet deep in thought with a lyre in his hands.The poet is surrounded by dusk rays turning from blue to lilac, and rippling yellow water reflecting coolness and the extension of horizon… It reminds me of a pop song by a Chinese singer Zhang Chu, “This is a season of love. The air is filled with the scent of love. A lonely person is shameful...”

“Mom, what is this black painting?” A little girl asked her mother curiously, which voiced out the puzzle hovering in many viewers’ minds. Soulages’Painting 19 June 1979is hailed as his milestone for “liberating black from the darkness.” The canvas is painted all black. The looming brush strokes look like carvings. Placed at the end of the exhibition, Soulages’ black becomes eye catching, for even if you stare at it piously for an hour,you still may not understand exactly what it says.

阿方斯·奥斯波特的《孤独》Solitude by Alphonse Osbert

苏拉热的《1979年6月19日画作》Painting 19 June 1979 by Pierre Soulages

毕加索绘制在丝巾上的《为人民的和平》La Paix pour les Peuples (i.e. Peace for the People) by Pablo Picasso

Apart from Soulages’ black paintings, there were also“jumping” decorative patterns on Dubuffet’s canvas. The general public may find it difficult to understand these Western abstract paintings with those indescribable graphics and colors, but it didn’t prevent them from stopping and speculating in front of the paintings.

“Art is a bridge for cultural exchanges which allows people of two nations to understand each other.With such mutual understanding, in the future, the two peoples can work and develop together on the international arena. This is what China and France have been doing,” said French Consul General Olivier Guyonvarch. They hoped to bring the best of France to Wuhan and present it to the citizens there. This exhibition was a pioneering step.

Meanwhile, another exhibit showing in the museum was Sketches, 20 Years, a Collection of Oil Paintings by famous Chinese artists. Their artworks were heavily influenced by the French Barbizon style. Fan Feng,the curator, said it was a deliberate arrangement.Stationing the two exhibitions next to each other, the Wuhan Art Museum expected that the local artists and art lovers would be able to witness the exchange of different cultures and the diversity of art forms through comparison.◆ (Translation: Zhang Lei)

诗人手持里拉琴沉思，黄昏的光线从蓝色渐变为淡紫色，泛着涟漪的黄色水面带来的冷峻感和水平面的延伸，表现出诗人在现代社会中的孤独感。看到阿方斯·奥斯波特的《孤独》，不禁想到张楚的歌，“这是一个恋爱的季节，空气里都是情侣的味道，孤独的人是可耻的……”

“妈妈，这个黑色是什么呀？”跟妈妈一起来看展的小女孩可能问出很多人的疑惑。苏拉热的《1979年6月19日画作》，被誉为“将黑色从黑暗之中解放出来”。画面涂成全黑，若隐若现的纹路犹如“雕刻”，展览的最后，苏拉热的黑很显眼，可即便你虔诚地凝望一个小时，也看不懂那到底是什么。

除了苏拉热画布上一整团黑，还有杜布菲画面上躁动不安的装饰性图案，面对着难以名状的图形与色彩，普通大众也许越来越难看懂这些西方抽象绘画，但这并不妨碍观众在画前驻足停留沉思。

“艺术是搭建文化交流的一个桥梁，可以让两个民族的人们互相了解。未来，两个互相了解的民族能够在国际舞台上一起合作和发展，这也是目前中法两国在国际舞台上正在做的事情。”法国驻武汉总领事贵永华说，他们希望把法国最好的东西带到武汉，呈献给武汉的观众朋友，此次展览就是一个缩影。

美术馆内同时展出的，还有国内知名艺术家的“写生二十年”油画作品展。樊枫馆长表示这是一次刻意安排。“写生二十年”展出的中国作品，受到“巴比松画派”影响，而“巴比松画派”发源自法国。武汉美术馆希望能让更多的本地艺术家和艺术爱好者，能在两个展览的对比中，看到国际文化的交流和碰撞，看到艺术的多样性。◆