The Art Of The Enlightenment

'Portrait of Heinrike Dannecker'
by Gottlieb Schick, 1802.
Not in the exhibition.

A Sino-German agreement between Wen Jiabao and Angela Merkel saw the installation of almost 600 pieces of paintings, sculptures and vintage fashion pieces and furniture at the newly re-opened National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆). This is the first international exhibition of the museum.

Titled 'The Art of the Enlightenment', the pieces are on loan from the Berlin State Museums, Dresden State Art Collections and the Bavarian State Pictures Collections from April 2011 to March 2012. I thought it was a tad ironic to address the concepts and philosophy of 'Enlightenment' in China's current political climate. Immanuel Kant and Voltaire! Duhhhhh. Pleasantly surprised to find that no entrance fee was required at this point in time. It wasn't crowded. Lots of space to move around.

The National Museum of China is massive. HUGE. It's purportedly the largest museum in the world, following extensive renovations which combined the earlier two separate museums (Museum of Chinese History and Museum of the Chinese Revolution). 'The Art of the Enlightenment' took up 3 galleries. There were other galleries of jade, coins and contemporary art in the building too. I allocated a full day to comb through everything. It's right next to Tiananmen Square (天安门广场) and the Forbidden City (故宫), so a full day out in the area is possible.

There were so many humans 'guarding' the galleries. Like 5 in each gallery. No photo-taking was allowed at all; the staff patrolled the corridors and watched visitors like hawks to tell them off should there be any breach of rules. I could, risk being scolded or asked to delete it, and still blatantly take a photo. But I didn't. I ahemmm....went for a couple of sneaky shots each time a staff turned out of sight.

The exhibition spanned 9 themes across 3 galleries- 'Luxury and Fashion', 'Perspectives of Knowledge', 'Birth of History', 'Far and Near', 'Love & Sensibility', 'Back to Nature', 'The Dark Sides', 'Emancipation and the Public Sphere', and the 'Revolution of Art'. Sextants, telescopes, antique maps, furniture in Chinese motifs, dainty boxes, bureaus, cabinets, etc filled the display space. There was a pair of worn black leather shoes on display. The information plate read, "Immanuel Kant's shoes, c.1800 to 1802". Ummm....okaaay. Well made, certainly, and well preserved. No sign of disintegration. I was bemused. :)  These were shoes that Kant wore. Right. But...shoes.

There were 4 copperplate engravings of battle scenes on display by Giuseppe Castiglione, who was a foreign missionary artist at the court of Qing Emperor Qianlong. The Emperor commissioned these copperplates based on monumental Chinese paintings that depicted the Victories over the Mongolian Zunghars and Muslim tribes in Central Asia. Fascinating.

Goya's aquatints 'Los Caprichos', 1799.

At 'The Dark Sides', I saw 16 pieces by Francisco de Goya. 8 aquatints out of 80 known works from 'Los Caprichos' 1799, which criticized superstition, social prejudices and ills. And 8 out of 82 known plates from 'Los Desastres de la Guerra' (The Disasters of War) 1820/23, which were released only after his death, when it was viewed safe to come forward with criticism about the French Revolution and the Bourbon Restoration. I was most thrilled. Lingered really long over them and stared so very hard. These were what I came to view. John Henry Fuseli's 'Satan and Death with Sin Intervening, 1802', an extract from Milton's 'Paradise Lost' was mesmerizing. William Hogswarth's satire of a series of sketches about 'The Rake's Progress' was on display too.

At the final room, selected pieces of modern art held court, for example, works from George Baselitz and of course Andy Warhol. Being the 25th anniversary of the death of the pop artist, there was a token self-portrait done in 1967. At home, the ArtScience Museum has on display over 260 paintings, drawings, film and video in an exhibition titled '15 Minutes Eternal'. Almost tempted to skip it. We'll see. I like some of his works, but not all, definitely not the Campbell soup stuff.

When I came to the last piece of the exhibition, I blinked. Instead of the actual 'Portrait of Heinrike Dannecker' 1802, by Gottlieb Schick, there was a board informing visitors that due to loan agreements, this painting had been removed as of September 2011. Win lor. This is the painting that's on every brochure about the exhibition. Never mind, 2 hours well spent still. Time to go check out the other stuff in the rest of the galleries.