After serving the country's art community for 40 years, the China National Art Museum will take a long break. Starting next month, the nation's top museum of modern Chinese art will close for a year or longer to undergo a thorough interior refurbishment.

While several galleries and museums in Beijing are trying to fill in the exhibition vacuum left by the closing of the Museum, critics and artists have expressed hope that the museum will also take the time to improve its management system.

"No exhibition has been arranged from mid-April till April 2003," said Yan Zhenqiang from the Exhibition Department of the art museum. "And that's just for the first phase," he noted.

Yan described an ambitious project to refurbish the present art museum and then build a new extension on the west side of the old building, which was one of Beijing's top 10 landmark buildings in the 1960s.

"The second phase won't start for more than a year," he said.

Wu Qiong, director of the general office of the art museum, told China Daily that the renovation and expansion of the China National Art Museum is a State-level project that involves the support of several government departments. But she declined to elaborate.

"It is still hard to say the exact date of closure and how long the museum will close this time. At least a year, I am afraid," Wu said.

Facility face-lift

This will be the second time the leading Chinese art museum has closed its doors for renovation since it opened in 1962. From 1990-91, the museum closed for 18 months to fortify the structure against earthquakes.

An insider said the art museum's upcoming refurbishment will include adding modern facilities and controlling and monitoring its heating and air-conditioning systems to provide stable temperatures and controlled humidity levels for exhibits.

She said the facade, structure and composition of the old building will not change. "The expansion wing of the museum will take a relatively modern look but will be in harmony with the traditional architectural style of the old museum," said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

"I wish the refurbishment project had come earlier," said Xu Xiaobing, 36, a Beijing art lover who went to the museum for a last visit yesterday.

A frequent museum goer, Xu said he has been able to visit many impressive exhibitions that the national art museum has hosted since the 1990s, among them the "Chinese Oil Painting in the 20th Century" show and the solo retrospectives of master French sculptor Rodin and Chinese painter Xu Beihong.

"Each time I see the masterpieces on display here, I feel embarrassed by the shabby exhibition venue. It does not match those art works and the status of a national art museum," he said.

"The feeling has been ever stronger, especially when I visited some marvelous art museums in Europe and the United States," Xu continued.

His opinion was echoed by Zhang Yu, president of the China International Exhibition Agency.

"Because of the poor facilities of the China National Art Museum, we had to give up many plans to bring in masterpieces from European countries for Chinese audiences," Zhang said.

"For example, the stable temperature and humidity conditions necessary for oil paintings are unavailable here."

Liu Xiaochun, a leading art critic and curator, criticized the outdated museum as lacking in modern electrical, audio-visual and lighting equipment needed for exhibitions of contemporary works such as installations and video art.

New destinations

It is good news that the China National Art Museum is finally undergoing renovation.

But where should its annual 180 art exhibitions be staged and where can people like Xu Xiaobing find art shows in the city during the long year when the museum is closed?

According to Yan, the China National Art Museum is considering borrowing venues at other art museums and galleries for its reserved exhibitions and for displays of its permanent collections.

The art museum houses more than 60,000 art works, among them representative pieces by 20th century masters such as Wu Changshuo (1844-1927), Qi Baishi (1863-1957), Huang Binhong (1865-1955), Xu Beihong (1895-1953), Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), Pan Tianshou (1897-1971), Wu Guanzhong, Luo Zhongli and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).

Wang Yudong, deputy director of the China Millennium Monument Art Museum, said that his museum is actively negotiating with the national art museum on such collaborative projects.

"We hope to join hands with the national art museum to organize some exhibitions and borrow part of their precious collections for display in our galleries," Wang said.

"Our museum used to mainly host relic exhibitions, without paying enough attention to art works. From this year on, we will organize more exhibitions of modern and contemporary art to serve the local art community," he noted.

Some other museums and galleries in the Chinese capital are benefiting from the closure of the China National Art Museum, as well.

Zhou Pingping from the Yan Huang Art Museum said that organizations such as the China International Exhibition Agency and the Chinese Artists' Association are ready to move some shows to her museum, which has been hungry for good exhibits.

Because ideal public exhibition venues are rare, private galleries such as Redgate are now being considered by major art companies under the Ministry of Culture.

"We are collaborating on quite a few exhibitions at my gallery this year. That would have been totally incredible before," Brian Wallace, artistic director of the Redgate Gallery, was quoted as saying in a report.

However, Zhu Fenghan, director of the National Museum of Chinese History, and Wang Xiao, deputy director of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) Art Museum, both claim that they will continue with their own arrangements of art exhibitions. The close of the national art museum will not have any effect on the two museums.

Zhu explained that his museum usually does not exhibit works of living artists - the main focus of the national art museum - and exhibitions in the museum are usually reserved years in advance.

Wang Xiao said the exhibitions in his museum are primarily limited to works by teachers and students from CAFA or other art schools.

Art museum reform

But, how to exhibit art works is just one side of the problem facing the China National Art Museum and other public art venues.

Experts said it is high time for China's public art museums to reform their management system to meet international practices.

"A new facility does not necessarily make a good art museum," said Zhang Zhaohui, an independent curator who worked for eight years at the national art museum and later took curatorial studies in New York.

Besides government funding and a limited income from admissions, the China National Art Museum, like many smaller public museums, supports itself largely through renting its exhibition halls and opening souvenir shops, according to Zhang.

"The museum seldom curates exhibitions itself, and the management seems to have little sense about curatorial work." Zhang said.

"Only on important national holidays or festivals, does it display some of its collection, but without much research and promotional work," Zhang said, adding that complaints have increased because the museum has accepted poor quality exhibits by mediocre artists.

Both Liu Xiaochun and Zhang agreed that successful reforms at the Shanghai Art Museum and the Guangdong Museum of Art have attracted excellent curators, quality exhibits and public funding, and have challenged the old-fashioned operational mode and authoritativeness of the China National Art Museum.

Other experts say that the efficient promotion and services of new art venues in Beijing such as the China Millennium Monument Art Museum have also drawn away a large part of its former visitors.

Hopefully, in the near future, the public will not only enjoy the brand-new, beautiful venue of the China National Art Museum, but also celebrate another leader in the nation's art museum reform.

(China Daily March 29, 2002)