Take advantage of innovation to achieve improvement
Appointment, temperature measurement, admission...With the orderly opening of museums and art galleries, a large number of wonderful exhibitions have opened one after another, and people can't wait to start a date with art. What new changes have taken place in museums and art galleries that once again meet with the audience? What are the new trends in recent exhibitions? Need to go deep into the exhibition hall to find the answer.
Themed exhibition witnesses the era
Art creation on anti-epidemic theme is produced by tempering and touching by spirit. In these works, real emotions are intertwined with touching stories, tenacious spirit and boiling passion are blended together to outline the spiritual map that belongs to this era.
Artists are creating, art museums are recording. Many art works on anti-epidemic themes were quickly collected and collected, which has become a valuable testimony of the Chinese people's concerted efforts to overcome the difficulties. Many museums also broke their original exhibition plans and temporarily planned anti-epidemic exhibitions. National Museum of China "Combined Wills-Anti-epidemic Theme Art Exhibition", Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum "Jiangsu Province Anti-epidemic Theme Art and Calligraphy Exhibition", Hangzhou Museum "Temperature of Art-National Anti-epidemic Theme Art Exhibition"...Grand The theme of the show is a vivid face, a beautiful blessing, and a hymn of life. The ordinary heroes rushing to help Hubei, the people watching and helping each other, and the hot scene of resuming work and production are all in the exhibition halls across the country.
Art creation on the theme of poverty alleviation is a concrete practice of the majority of art workers who consciously "go deep into life and take root in the people". In recent years, the creation of this major theme has continued to deepen. Starting from September 2019, the National Academy of Painting of China has actively organized art workers from the entire academy to go to the front line of poverty alleviation to conduct sketching, personally experience the great practice of poverty alleviation, and share the joy of local people rushing to a well-off society. Many of the works exhibited in the "Spring Blossoms and Autumn Fruits-Painting Exhibition on Poverty Alleviation Theme of China National Academy of Painting" are all on-site sketches of art workers, full of earthy atmosphere.
The symphony of the times is even more exciting at the “Art Works Exhibition of Poverty Alleviation and Toughness in the National Art Museum of China”. The 17 exhibition halls of the National Art Museum of China and the courtyard sculpture garden jointly exhibited more than 550 works (sets) reflecting the themes of poverty alleviation, production and labor, and construction. Among them, Wang Fenying's Chinese painting "Warm the Heart—Poverty Households in Shibadong Village" and other works, focus on the advanced figures and deeds emerging in the fight against poverty, write the spirit of the times with multiple artistic expressions, and bring a double aesthetic to the audience Feel.
The anti-epidemic theme art exhibition and the poverty alleviation theme art exhibition, with artistic expressions that are rich in people's character, time and sense of the scene, provide a new path for presenting national memory, exerting the function of aesthetic education, and promoting artistic creation.
Showcase and design
The exhibition is a bridge connecting the audience with the museum and art gallery. Well-organized exhibition narrative and exhibition design are indispensable.
If an exhibition is compared to a story, then the narrative technique of the exhibition determines the logic and way the story unfolds. Nowadays, exhibitions of works by famous artists, exhibitions of cultural relics, exhibitions of historical culture, etc. are becoming the mainstream of museum exhibitions. It is still a common curation method to connect the entire exhibition with historical evolution as a clue, but on the scale of the time axis, how to achieve more exciting The narrative tests the curator’s ability. The Shanghai Museum gave its answer with "A Thousand Miles of Spring Breeze-Jiangnan Culture and Art Exhibition". Although the exhibition is based on time and cultural relics, the five major themes are used to dig deep into the deep spiritual core of "Jiangnan Culture" to achieve the effect of seeing people through things.
The continuous innovation of curatorial ideas not only stems from the pursuit of excellence in museums and art galleries, but also from the audience's demand for excellent exhibitions. From simple display to rich display, from focusing on the work to analyzing the process, more and more "behind the scenes" stories have come to the "front", providing the audience with another way to enter the art world. Recently, the Art Museum of Beijing Academy of Fine Arts "Birth of a Painting-Beijing Academy of Fine Arts Painters Exhibition" juxtaposed the artist’s artistic experience, work scenes, sketches, sketches, etc. with the works, and enriched the creation through a small perspective. The level of the exhibition allows the audience to understand the works more comprehensively and think about the theme of the painting.
Exhibition design often affects the audience's first impression of the exhibition. The design of subtleties such as lighting, display panels, and showcases bears important functions such as creating an environment, spreading knowledge and ideas, and stimulating audiences' imagination. How to activate the beauty of the exhibition hall with the power of design? The National Museum of China "Remember Homesickness-Shandong Folk Art Exhibition" began to make a fuss from outside the exhibition hall. Five cloth tigers of equal proportions stand outside the exhibition hall, not only highlighting the theme of the exhibition, but also attracting the audience to take photos with them, becoming the "preface" of the exhibition visualization in the new media era. There are more than 1,500 pieces (sets) of Shandong folk art collections on display in the exhibition. How to avoid the accumulation of a large number of exhibits in a limited space and lead to fatigue of the exhibition? On the one hand, the exhibition breaks the craft categories of the exhibits and restores the traditional use of folk art and cultural context; on the other hand, it displays some similar crafts in groups. This design not only has a strong visual impact, but also facilitates the audience to understand and compare different exhibits at the same time. Another exhibition of the National Museum of China focusing on folk arts and crafts, "Carving and Painting the Universe-Chaozhou Wood Carving Exhibition", also reflects the high level of exhibition design. The use of warm yellow lights, window-shaped decorative light boxes, Chaozhou characteristic lanterns and other elements create a spatial atmosphere rich in regional characteristics and historical heritage; the multimedia interactive experience interspersed in the exhibition hall is the embodiment of the concept of participatory exhibition.
"Bridges" are being built and improved, but as the number of exhibitions continues to increase and the demand for exhibitions continues to change, how to innovate museum exhibition theory and practice and improve exhibition quality is still a topic worthy of continuous exploration.
Innovation of social functions
Recently, museums and galleries have also shown new changes in collection, display, education, and research.
Collections are the foundation of a museum, and the importance of collection work is self-evident. In my country, the main sources of museum collections are ancient unearthed cultural relics and handed down cultural relics. The collection and protection of modern cultural relics, especially contemporary cultural relics, is slightly weak. In March of this year, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage issued a notice stating that all provincial museums and museums above the prefecture and municipal level in Hubei Province should carry out the collection and preservation work in an orderly manner while preventing and controlling the epidemic. For some museums, this is the first large-scale collection of historical witnesses on a specific theme that are in keeping with the times. The collection concept of "recording today for tomorrow" has been strengthened again. Many museums in Hubei, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places quickly organized special exhibitions based on the collected witnesses to tell stories about the fight against the epidemic.
There are also some museums that give full play to their own strength and participate in recording history. For example, the Zhejiang Art Museum planned the “Seeing Their Faces” art painting activity, inviting teachers and students of the China Academy of Art to paint portraits of female medical staff in Shaw Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang University School of Medicine, and held special exhibitions focusing on these works. .
From collecting witnesses to organizing creation, museums and art galleries are participating in the development of the times with a more active attitude, broader vision, and more diverse means, engraving national memories. It is worth noting that the purpose of the collection work of museums and art galleries is not only to preserve memory and carry forward the spirit, but also to promote research and enlighten future generations. How to carry out valuable research on a large number of collections and realize wider resource sharing requires continuous efforts from museums and art galleries.
From focusing on offline display, to coexisting online and offline displays, and then to curating thematic online exhibitions, this is a recent change in the exhibition format of museums and art galleries. Such a change is not only a response to the limitations of offline viewing, but also an inevitable choice for the development of curatorial concepts, science and technology, and audience needs to a certain extent. For example, the all-digital online virtual exhibition "The Generation of Ancient Ideas-Ming and Qing Calligraphy and Calligraphy Research Exhibition" held by the Art Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, uses high-level interactive design, high-definition pictures of works and rich related research results to crack the traditional ancient times. The dim lighting of the calligraphy and painting exhibition led to poor viewing experience, the painting and calligraphy works could not be displayed for a long time, and the exhibition wall could not carry too much text information. In addition, this exhibition based on its own collections also reflects that under the background of the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, facing the limitations of interlibrary loan and exchange of exhibitions, it fully activates collection resources, explores collection advantages, and deepens collection research and sorting. It will become one of the important tasks of museums and art galleries. This is especially true for small and medium museums, art galleries and private museums and art galleries.
At present, all aspects of museums and art galleries are undergoing "micro-renewal". I believe that small changes will eventually bring new opportunities and advantages.
Our reporter Ma Suwei