One Man's Art Is Another Man's ... Stuff

Mountains, Stairs, Temples, Moon cakes, Funny Signs, Funny People, Stairs, Bridges, Ancient Engineering, and of course, More Stairs.
That pretty much sums up my observations so far and amazingly enough, my dear wife has not yet asked “So, been to any ART museums? I’m certain China has those, too”

So this past Sunday – I went to the Sichuan Art Museum. This is some real high brow stuff; I had to shell out $0.66 just to get in the door!

But that’s not being fair (but it should have been a clue)
Three story building. Exhibits on all 3 floors.
Floor #1 contains a long continuous wall paper mounted on foam board displaying the history of Chinese Modern art. Very few English translations (ok, there were like - 4), but I think I was looking at the evolution of the 4 basic “-isms” of Chinese art as they has evolved in the last 200 years. One of the English borders may have been the most telling. One small text claims that the 4 “isms” of Chinese Art had to be contained and evolved so that individual creativity was managed except for that which would please the populace as a whole. Translation: Creativity and expression are fine as long as you express what the state told you to express.
Floor #2 was dedicated to one artist, Pan Gongkai and one subject “Still Water Flowing Deep”. Essentially, black and white oils on canvas depicting a running stream (some areas shallow and some deep) and the vegetation that each type of water condition might stimulate. Pretty strange, but I liked it in a strange sorta way. Most of the paintings seemed a bit out of focus and I thought of Monet and how his near sightedness caused him to draw those fuzzy pictures and I figured that old Pan must be a bit nearsighted also.
Floor 3 was a collaboration of many artists each working in different media to express his view of Life. This was pretty interesting, because they had a picture of my brother (see right)
and one that reminded me of Red Skelton for some reason (see below)













The building was in horrible shape, some paintings hung with straight pins and paper clamps (of course I have pictures of that). The floors were filthy with trash in corners and this is supposed to be THE place to go for Sichuan Art. So go write your congressman and keep funding art in schools – so we don’t end up like this.















I guess my overall impression is that despite thousands of years of ancient art and some really cool modern architecture (future blog), it seems the modern Chinese has to re-learn how to ‘do’ Art and re-learn its importance and value as a tool to express a culture and society and all that geo-socio-political-stuff. I left somewhat sad.


But not to worry - I won' tlet YOU leave sad, because I saw a hallway that I thought might lead to another exhibit (there simply had to be more than what I saw up to that point) – so down the hall I went. It wasn’t long before I realized I'm not supposed to be there.
Just a long hallway leading to a stairwell and some old junk, but that's when I noticed this really big mirror sitting off to the side by itself. It had to be 6 feet wide, 10 feet tall, big wooden frame with strange carvings. Then I realized what it is – the “See What Your Wildest Dreams Are” Mirror from the 1st Harry Potter.
So I looked in it – and took a picture.
No visions though.
Must be broken.