Private Museum: Treasures scattered among the people
Museum of Strange Stones in the Desert
The first light of dawn illuminates the ancient village of Gujiang Village, Liucun Town, Changping District, Beijing A spacious courtyard house. There is a man in the courtyard who always gets up at dawn and begins his day of rich and happy life. This is the largest private strange stone museum in Beijing - Beijing Desert Strange Stone Museum. This person is Wei Jinxue, the founder of the Strange Stone Museum and a collector of strange stones in the desert.
The first thing Lao Wei did after getting up was to appreciate the rocks. The Museum of Strange Stones was founded in 2003. More than a dozen exhibition rooms here display the strange stones from the desert that he spent several years and cost 3 million yuan and weighed hundreds of tons. Precious agate, crystal clear crystal, mysterious chalcedony, dazzling desert rose...the countless strange stone treasures are breathtaking, and they are also the magnificent testimony of Lao Wei's lifelong pursuit. Wei Jinxue is full of piety towards them. He believes that the strange stones in the desert are the spirits of nature and cannot be monopolized by individuals. They must let their brilliance bloom in the world. So, he spent several years of hard work and his life savings to build this desert stone museum.
Wiping and admiring the strange stones is Lao Wei’s first homework every day. As he wipes and looks at them, a new artistic feeling and inspiration suddenly arises. The famous calligrapher Ouyang Zhongshi once wrote a poem about the strange stones in the desert: "There are thousands of shapes in all directions, and the sun and the moon are born without marking the year. Don't pretend to be a carver and rely on nature, you can be free and at ease." The ease and ease of the stone in front of him gave Old Wei an important life Enlightenment.
After breakfast, Lao Wei immediately walked into his stone workshop. Most of the untreated stones were "mud eggs" and needed to be tamped, chopped, whittled, chiseled, washed and brushed. , wash, and take care of it to reveal your true beauty. The next step is to make a base for it. Some people say that there are three parts of a stone and seven parts of a base. A base that matches the shape of the stone can greatly enhance the color of the stone. The process of making the bottom bracket is a process of continuous improvement. Start by selecting tree roots that match the stone. In order to successfully "match" the two, a stone weighing more than 100 kilograms often has to be lifted up and down on the roots of the tree forty or fifty times, which is definitely a laborious task. It takes repeated and careful processing with electric saws, electric planers, trimming machines, and engraving machines before it can be formed. Then it was revised and improved repeatedly until the strange stone was perfectly embedded in the base and placed on the countertop to show the artistic effect of the integration of stone and wood. At this time, a sense of pleasure would quickly hit the happy old Wei, and his hands would even tremble with excitement, for fear that the stone would flutter away immediately. In Lao Wei's own words, "No amount of money can buy that kind of refreshment."
Wei Jinxue’s collection of strange stones is hundreds of tons, and he can’t tell how many there are, but he can sensitively detect if a certain stone in the house or courtyard has been slightly changed by someone. arrive. There is a secret connection between him and Desert Stone. Wei used to have high blood sugar, which he did not get better without taking medicine, and he even fainted. After struggling like this every day, his blood sugar has quietly dropped. Now Wei is feeling refreshed and living a very nourishing life. The role of the "artistic labor regimen" cannot be underestimated. Recently, Wei Jinxue wrote and published the book "Stones from the Desert Strange Stone Collection", which has done another great thing for the spread of Chinese stone culture. Buxiong
Museum of Songtangzhai Folk Sculpture
Songtangzhai Folk Sculpture Museum is located on Liulichang East Street, Xuanwu District, Beijing. Its architecture is unique on Liulichang Street. Carved wooden doors, checkerboard wooden windows, foundation stones, carved beams, eaves stones and other components are all treasures in the collection. Even the stone steps in front of the door were collected from an abandoned temple. Small stone monkeys from the Han Dynasty are embedded in the outer walls, and stone beams from the Qing Dynasty carved with figures are still impressive. The "Xiangguang Four Sides" fence, which was once popular on Dashilan Street outside the front gate, surrounds the entrance of the museum. Stone elephants and Eight Immortals carved door piers are displayed in the fence to show the ancient style. The doors and windows in the museum are all authentic products from ancient buildings. The old window lattice is either set on the wall or hung on the roof, giving a three-dimensional display of the collection.
In the museum, there are more than 1,000 pieces (sets) in the museum, ranging from bricks and tiles of the Qin and Han Dynasties to stone, wood and brick carvings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties; from decorative components of folk architecture to various ancient furniture. The foyer on the first floor is divided by a six-panel hollowed-out wooden screen from the Qing Dynasty. There are three gatehouses standing in the hall: the brick-carved gatehouse from Shanxi, the wood-carved gatehouse from Beijing, and the stone-carved gatehouse from Jiangxi. They have ancient charm and majestic momentum.
The booths on the second floor are mostly carved components from different periods and regions: the brick carvings of "Exercises of Filial Piety" from the Song Dynasty, the stone carvings of "Immediately Become a Marquis", and the door piers of the "Samurai Drinking Beasts" from the Yuan Dynasty are all finely carved and well-preserved. The treasure of the town hall.
Guanfu Classical Art Museum
The original site of the Guanfu Classical Art Museum is located in the famous ancient cultural street - Liulichang West Street. It is the first private museum in Beijing. It was opened on January 18, 1997. It was officially opened to the public on the same day. In 2004, the museum moved to Dashanzi, Chaoyang District, an emerging cultural industry area in Beijing. The new museum covers an area of ??4,000 square meters, of which the exhibition area and member activity area are 2,800 square meters. It has an oil painting gallery and ancient furniture. There are six exhibition halls: ancient ceramics hall, ancient doors and windows hall, ancient calligraphy and painting hall and ancient crafts hall. The museum mainly collects about 50 pieces of porcelain from the late Ming Dynasty. In addition, the museum also displays ancient furniture, carpets, clothing and other exhibits from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is a place that integrates art appreciation and historical research.
Museum of Modern Painting
The He Yang and Wu Qian Modern Painting Museum is located in Jinzhan Township, Chaoyang District, next to the Tulip Park. When you walk in the door, you see a two-story building. The exhibition hall on the first floor displays the traditional Chinese paintings of He Yang and Wu Qian. Among them, Wu Qian's vertical scroll figure paintings are the most outstanding, and most of the paintings are women from ethnic minorities. The exhibition hall on the second floor begins with the "Legends of Old Beijing Series" created by Mr. He Yang around 1993, followed by Professor Wu Qian's new ink paintings. Although the work was made more than ten years ago, the expression skills of modern Western art and the connotation of ancient Chinese history and profound culture are reflected in the picture, which is refreshing.
The appearance of this museum is simple and elegant, unpretentious, more like an art studio or a common people's home, but the structural design is very peculiar. The division and connection between the exhibition area, creative area and living area are designed very cleverly and reasonably. First-time visitors will feel like a maze here. He Yang said: "This was designed jointly by our whole family. Because we all insisted on disagreeing with each other, we had to listen to the opinions of our friends and compromise the current building structure."
Museum of Red Sandalwood Art
The China Red Sandalwood Museum is located near Gaobeidian, Chaoyang District. In itself, it can be regarded as a rather perfect and spectacular handicraft. The design of this museum covering an area of ??25,000 square meters is grand and exquisite, antique yet modern.
The exhibition hall of the China Red Sandalwood Museum covers an area of ??9569 square meters, with a central hall, exhibition hall, conference hall, VIP room, multi-functional hall and temporary exhibition hall, etc. Here you can appreciate the Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture and red sandalwood furniture. Fine traditional furniture, Buddhist cultural artworks, traditional furniture materials and carving techniques are also on display. In addition, you can appreciate the miniature ancient Chinese architectural landscape here: the turrets of the Forbidden City, the Qianqiu Pavilion and the Wanchun Pavilion in the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City, showing the royal style; the archway of Longquan Temple in Wutai Mountain, Shanxi, with 320 dragons in different postures, exquisite The round carvings, reliefs and openwork carvings are rare in the world; the antique courtyards in Beijing, the Feiyun Tower in Shanxi that rises into the sky... These artistic treasures that convey oriental charm are all made of precious rosewood.
Since its opening, the Red Sandalwood Museum has received visitors from all over the world and political figures from various countries, becoming an important place for Beijing’s opening up to the outside world and cultural exchanges.
Museum of Tianming Bonsai
Tianming Bonsai and Stone Museum is located in the Xixiang Hutong of Huguosi Cultural Ancient Street (opposite to the People's Theater) in Xicheng District. There are more than 300 bonsai and rare stone works collected here, including bonsais such as podocarpus, black pine, white wax, small-leaf banyan, etc.; strange stones include desert stone, painted pottery stone, large fossils, Lingbi stone and the most distinctive "rose stone" in Beijing. In the recent Yinchuan Stone Festival competition, the "Bird of Paradise" desert stone collected by the museum won the gold medal.
Museum of Ancient Pottery Civilization
The Museum of Ancient Pottery Civilization is located at No. 12, Nancaiyuan West Street, Xuanwu District. The exhibition hall covers an area of ??about 400 square meters. The regular exhibition consists of nearly 600 exhibits in four thematic series: Painted Pottery Yuansou, Wadang Grand View, Sealed Mud Juexiang, and Ancient Pottery Sequence. It strives to combine popular education, art appreciation and professional research, and integrate the civilization of ancient pottery. Show your lasting and unique charm to the world.
Among them, the "Painted Pottery Yuansou" series displays painted pottery unearthed from Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia during the late Neolithic Age (about 5,000 to 3,000 years ago), mainly from the Majiayao Culture, Qijia Culture, Tangwang Culture, and Xindian Culture There are nearly a hundred pieces, many of which are rare and perfectly preserved to this day. The "Wandang Grand View" series is the first thematic tile exhibition divided by age, region and function. It displays 140 tiles from different regions, different functions and different categories from the Warring States Period to the Eastern Han Dynasty for hundreds of years, many of which are rare and unique. . It is the most complete tile collection system in existence. The "Sealing Mud Absolute Sound" series displays 175 pieces of sealing mud from the Qin and Han Dynasties. This is the most important special exhibition to date. In particular, the Qin sealing mud part is called "another major discovery in the history of Qin culture", covering various subordinate officials of the political system of Qin Shihuang's three gongs and nine ministers, revealing the names of dozens of lost Qin counties, palaces and gardens, and revealing the Many little-known political, economic, cultural, and military contents related to Qin Shihuang and the civilization of the Qin Dynasty are called "relics of Qin Shihuang's reviewing documents" by experts in the archaeological field and Qin and Han history circles. The precious document lacking in "Hanshu" is the first official list and geographical chronicle of the unified Chinese feudal dynasty, and is the source archive of China's political system for hundreds of generations." The "Ancient Pottery Sequence" exhibits 130 pieces of pottery cultural relics of different types and categories from the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties in 2000. From them, we can see the evolution and development of ancient pottery civilization, and more comprehensively reflect the creation and development of pottery by the Chinese ancestors. Use and aesthetics.
On the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the opening of the Ancient Ceramics Civilization Museum on June 15, 2004, the exhibition hall was renovated and new exhibitions were set up. In addition to all the changes in the "Painted Pottery Yuansou" series and most updates in the "Wadang Grand View" and "Ancient Pottery Sequence", the most important thing is the launch of a group of special exhibitions focusing on sculptures of people, gods and animals from the Hongshan Culture. Among them, " The "Giant God's Head" is an important artifact of Hongshan culture and can be called the treasure of the Ancient Pottery Civilization Museum.
"Private blogging" dominates the international trend
The New Capital Museum, completed last year, has become a unique scenery on Chang'an Avenue; the largest film museum in Asia has opened its doors Welcoming guests... In recent years, there has been a trend of new museum renovations. By the end of last year, the city had 131 registered museums, ranking first in the country in terms of number of museums. "In the current international society, private museums will become the mainstream of development." According to museum industry insiders, the 21st century will be the century of museums. In our country, private collections have also emerged from the "underground", and private museums have gradually become the trend and trend in the development of my country's museum industry.
The definition of museum given by the International Council of Museums clearly stipulates the attributes of museums: first, museums are not for profit; second, museums are permanent social institutions; third, The main function of the museum is to collect, protect, research, disseminate and exhibit physical evidence of human beings and the human environment. As the name suggests, private museums are museums built independently by individual citizens.
According to reports, private investment in the construction of museums is mainly due to the following situations: out of public welfare considerations, they want to share their many years of collection with more people; out of economic considerations, they want to achieve the goal of collecting A virtuous cycle of cultivating collections; companies set up libraries hoping to establish an image, etc.
At present, museums in our country are still public welfare institutions, and most museums still rely on financial allocations to maintain them. It is understood that foreign support methods for private museums are to adopt tax exemption or preferential tax policies, and all donations or investments will be taxed.
The lack of audiences is a fatal problem for private museums. Recently, in the messages left by citizens of the Beijing Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau, citizens have been asking about the address and contact information of private museums. If ordinary visitors want to find the private museum they are interested in, they need to go through many times to find what they want. No wonder some experts have suggested that since private museums are regarded as part of the cultural industry, private museum owners must have a sense of crisis, introduce modern management models, and work hard to promote their own museums.
In addition, due to the increasing popularity of the Internet in recent years, some experts have made suggestions for private museums: collections do not necessarily have to spend huge sums of money to set up museums for display, and it is no longer necessary to open a museum online. Difficult matter.
In fact, as far as the collection itself is concerned, there have been two methods since ancient times: "searching for treasures and storing them in the treasury" and "hiding treasures among the people".
Most of the collections in public museums are national treasure-level cultural relics from archeology, donations, etc., while private museums display more cultural relics and folk art scattered among the people. In this sense, every private museum should be respected, and no preference should be given to one.
"It is obviously impossible to collect all folk cultural relics by relying solely on limited public museums." Industry insiders said that only allowing public museums and private museums to complement each other and coexist is a healthy development path.