BEIJING, March 3 -- Complaints about the homogenized
experience of museums, everywhere, are commonplace. Walk through the doors of a
museum most anywhere in the world, and you find the "one by each" presentation
of canonized art history.
The same stories are repeated many times, in many
places, each offering greater or lesser examples to make their case.
 |
|
The exhibit represents an eclectic group
of styles, subjects and
approaches to art.(Photo:
CCTV.com)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
The exhibition of private collections offers a chance
to break the pattern. There's a preliminary showing in Beijing of an exhibition
with the long name of - "From Academia to Impressionism - Masterpieces of the
19th Century European Paintings from the Perez Simon Collection". The showing at
Beijing's World Art Museum offers a brisk, idiosyncratic run - through a century
of Western painting.
 |
|
The exhibit represents an eclectic group
of styles, subjects and
approaches to art.(Photo:
CCTV.com)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
The exhibition is ostensibly about the history and
development of European modern art. What the viewer experiences strolling
through the show, however, is the good taste of a single collector.
The collector in question, Mexican business magnate
Juan Anotonio Perez Simon has been amassing art since the early 1990's for his
social service foundation, Juntos Actuandos.
The 100 works chosen for display represent the
highlights of more than a thousand Simon holdings. The exhibit represents an
eclectic group of styles, subjects and approaches to art. There are fine
examples of the Italian, German, Dutch, English, Flemish, Spanish and French
schools.
 |
|
The exhibit represents an eclectic group
of styles, subjects and
approaches to art.(Photo:
CCTV.com)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
Among them are the 1871 work "Greek Girls Picking up
Pebbles by Sea" by English painter and sculptor Frederick Leighton. There's "The
Rose of Heliogabalus" by Dutch painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Heliogabalus was a
late Roman emperor, infamous for attempting to suffocate his dinner guests with
rose petals.
Having shown his collection in many of the world's
most prestigious museums and galleries, the famed art connoisseur and his
foundation brought his collection to China for the first time. They believed
that they will give Chinese art lovers an experience "never before seen".
 |
|
The exhibit represents an eclectic group
of styles, subjects and
approaches to art.(Photo:
CCTV.com)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
The exhibition's pride of place was given to Albert
Moore's 1868 work "A Quartet: A Painter's Tribute to the Art of Music". Moore
was one of the leading painters of the Aesthetic Movement. The relationship of
art and music was particularly important to Moore, who was a keen amateur
musician.
In the painting, four male figures clad in classical
drapery and with trance-like expressions play the instruments of a modern string
quartet. Their listeners are three maidens clad in Greek costumes.
The show officially opens to the public March 28th.
Mr. Perez Simon will come to Beijing in person to unveil his exhibition. The
exhibits will stay in Beijing for three months. Then, they will travel three
other Chinese cities for further showings.
(Source: CCTV.com)
 |
|
The exhibit represents an eclectic group
of styles, subjects and
approaches to art.(Photo:
CCTV.com)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
 |
|
The exhibit represents an eclectic group
of styles, subjects and
approaches to art.(Photo:
CCTV.com)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
