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.”

“天價”莫奈、抽象畢加索、“野獸”馬蒂斯、蘇拉熱“黑畫”，十余種藝術流派華麗亮相，共展出51幅作品，總價值5億歐元，每一幅都是藝術家所繪真跡。

張珊，湖北美術學院雕塑系畢業，現在上海工作，“早就在朋友圈看到消息，武漢有莫奈、畢加索真跡展出，當時就決定要抽空來武漢看展。”2018年1月14日，她和朋友排隊近一個小時，才進入館內。“這可是莫奈啊，排隊時間再長也值。”

2017年12月29日，來自法國圣埃蒂安大都會現當代藝術博物館（MAMC+）的國家級巨制館藏展“從莫奈到蘇拉熱——西方現代繪畫之路（1805-1975）”，在武漢美術館開幕。

這是慶祝武漢美術館30歲生日的重頭戲，也是紀念法國駐武漢總領事館2018年開館二十周年的重要活動。

該展開展之前就已刷屏武漢市民的朋友圈，2018年元旦三天，觀展人數就達10000余人，觀眾要排兩個多小時的隊才能進入展廳，這是武漢美術館開館10年來從未有過的場面。

考慮到作品安全和觀展體驗，武漢美術館實行雙休日限流領票制度，盡管如此，觀眾排隊看展熱情依然不減。

像張珊這樣從外地趕來專為一睹真跡的不在少數，還有不少扶老攜幼、舉家前來。這讓館長樊楓感慨不已，“欣賞藝術需要心情，這說明隨著生活水平的提高，人們對真善美的追求更高了，藝術逐漸滲透人心。這背后，是武漢經濟社會繁榮的積累，更是公共文化藝術多年的沉淀。”

此次展出的51件作品，梳理西方繪畫從19世紀初到20世紀末的歷史脈絡，向觀眾展示其中豐富多變的藝術形式。

觀眾可以看到多位耳熟能詳的藝術大師的作品，如庫爾貝、莫奈、馬蒂斯、畢加索、蘇拉熱等，還能結識其他為西方繪畫做出重要貢獻的藝術家。

莫奈一生畫了約250幅《睡蓮》，其中僅有4幅圓形構圖的《睡蓮》。本次展出的就有其中一幅，它是圣埃蒂安大都會博物館鎮館之寶，《睡蓮》也以近2億元人民幣的超高保價，首次來到武漢。

觀眾在圓形《睡蓮》前駐足Visitors looking at the painting Nymphéas (or Water Lilies) by Claude Monet

現場看到，與其他畫作可近距離觀賞不同，《睡蓮》僅可在圍欄外遠觀，不少觀眾伸長脖子想盡可能近地觀看。睡蓮、水面、花朵和樹葉的顏色對比讓空間無限打開，環形畫面的形式也讓視覺范圍更為集中，再次放大空間的觀感。

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·奧斯波特的《孤獨》Solitude by Alphonse Osbert

蘇拉熱的《1979年6月19日畫作》Painting 19 June 1979 by Pierre Soulages

畢加索繪制在絲巾上的《為人民的和平》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)

詩人手持里拉琴沉思，黃昏的光線從藍色漸變為淡紫色，泛著漣漪的黃色水面帶來的冷峻感和水平面的延伸，表現出詩人在現代社會中的孤獨感。看到阿方斯·奧斯波特的《孤獨》，不禁想到張楚的歌，“這是一個戀愛的季節，空氣里都是情侶的味道，孤獨的人是可恥的……”

“媽媽，這個黑色是什么呀？”跟媽媽一起來看展的小女孩可能問出很多人的疑惑。蘇拉熱的《1979年6月19日畫作》，被譽為“將黑色從黑暗之中解放出來”。畫面涂成全黑，若隱若現的紋路猶如“雕刻”，展覽的最后，蘇拉熱的黑很顯眼，可即便你虔誠地凝望一個小時，也看不懂那到底是什么。

除了蘇拉熱畫布上一整團黑，還有杜布菲畫面上躁動不安的裝飾性圖案，面對著難以名狀的圖形與色彩，普通大眾也許越來越難看懂這些西方抽象繪畫，但這并不妨礙觀眾在畫前駐足停留沉思。

“藝術是搭建文化交流的一個橋梁，可以讓兩個民族的人們互相了解。未來，兩個互相了解的民族能夠在國際舞臺上一起合作和發展，這也是目前中法兩國在國際舞臺上正在做的事情。”法國駐武漢總領事貴永華說，他們希望把法國最好的東西帶到武漢，呈獻給武漢的觀眾朋友，此次展覽就是一個縮影。

美術館內同時展出的，還有國內知名藝術家的“寫生二十年”油畫作品展。樊楓館長表示這是一次刻意安排。“寫生二十年”展出的中國作品，受到“巴比松畫派”影響，而“巴比松畫派”發源自法國。武漢美術館希望能讓更多的本地藝術家和藝術愛好者，能在兩個展覽的對比中，看到國際文化的交流和碰撞，看到藝術的多樣性。◆