Guangzhou Art Museum
By admin on 2015-01-12

Situated at the foot of Baiyun Mountain and on the shore of Luhu Lake, Guangzhou Art Museum is located on the Yuehu Road, Guangzhou. It occupies the building area of nearly 40,000 square meters. It is a large comprehensive art museum constructed with the funds appropriated by the People's Government of Guangzhou, which started to be built in 1995 and was completed on the whole in 2000.

Guangzhou Art Museum is a large-scale comprehensive art museum in South China and a cultural and artistic palace of ancient and modern treasures. The exhibitions of Guangzhou Art Museum are mainly based on the calligraphies and paintings of successive dynasties in China, featuring collections in Lingnan area, also covers other types of art work. Guangzhou Art Museum own more than 24,000 collections, many are national heritages. The most precious collections of museum are Ink Bamboos painted by Wen Tong in Song dynasty (one of the three precious pieces left in the world: the other two are now in Beijing and Taiwan respectively), The Mountain and The River painted by Dai Jing (22 meters) in Ming dynasty and Bamboos painted by Li Heng in Yuan dynasty.

Famous construction designer, Mo Bozhi, academician member of the Chinese Academy of Engendering, hosted the construction design of the museum. The design draws on the Lingnan traditional construction style. White is the dominant color of the structure, which looks dignified, elegant and magnificent with its colonnade of red sandrocks. Buildings and statues live harmoniously with surrounding environment which forms the architectural complex in graceful disorder and with delicate decoration.

The overall environment of Guangzhou Art Museum features a rich artistic atmosphere: on the square in front of the main gate stands the sculpture Impressions of Century (by Tang Daxi) expressing the glory of human culture. On the left of the museum, there is a tower. The detailed part of the tower contains the connotation to the Chinese words “羊”(sheep) and “丰”(harvest) which refer to the alias of Guangzhou, namely, Yangcheng or Suicheng. The red sandrock wall on the south of the main gate is graved with picture of prehistorical period which shows the long history of Lingnan culture. The main entrance of the museum is decorated by spectacular red sandrock corridor with tall beams and three couples of elegant and magnificent carved gate out of solid wood, which express an artistic beauty of the museum. “Twelve flower fairies” statues with classic garden style by sculptor Liang Mingcheng stand in the inner court of the museum, which are graceful and different from each other. The construction of the museum uses traditional Chinese courtyard design. The towers in different shapes perform as the transition parts which make the architectural complex in picturesque order. The detailed part of the construction, like the fire-sealing gable, the Han and Tang dynasty styled eave rafter, and stone carved dragon decoration with Lingnan local characteristics, demonstrates the culture and style of the Lingnan area.

Masters of painting and calligraphy such as Gao Jianfu, Chen Shuren, Zhao Shaoang, Li Xiongcai, Guan Shanyue, Yang Shanshen, Lai Shaoqi, Liao Bingxiong, Yang Zhiguang, leading collectors such as Ou chu, Zhao Tailai, musician Ma Sicong, have the celebrity galleries named after them in the Guangzhou Art Museum. Besides its affluent collections, the museum also holds large-scale special exhibitions for promoting international cultural exchange.