Shanghai Daily news

Visitors admire the Impressionist masterpieces at the “Tresors Impressionnistes de Collections Nationales Francaises” exhibition at Shanghai Art Museum. During the past five weeks, more than 200,000 visitors have been to see the show.

People queue in a long line outside the China National Art Museum in Beijing for the Impressionist exhibition. The Beijing tour attracted 300,000 visitors.

Impressionist fever in Shanghai will soon be drawing to an end. Over the past five weeks, more than 200,000 visitors from Shanghai, other parts of China and overseas, have been to see the “Tresors Impressionnistes de Collections Nationales Francaises” exhibition, the most expensive show that the Shanghai Art Museum has ever held.
On the first day, museum staff were astonished to see a queue that had begun forming at around 3am — some six hours before the doors were due to open — meandering from the art museum to the Shanghai Grand Theater.
“I was stunned to see such a flood of people queuing on my way to the museum,” says Li Xu, chief of the museum’s academic research department.
As part of the Year of France in China, the exhibition features 51 priceless French Impressionist masterpieces, including
works by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edouard Manet and Paul Cezanne. The show has already swept art lovers in Beijing where it attracted more than 300,000 visitors in six weeks.
Strict rules forbid the use of mobile phones and the taking of snack food inside the exhibition hall where only 500 visitors
are allowed at any one time. The museum has installed an inspection station at the main gate to check every visitor and to
look through his or her belongings.
It is obviously the most heavyweight exhibition ever staged in Shanghai.
Everyone knows that the chance to see such a collection of original Impressionist masterpieces is a once-in-a-lifetime experience but the overwhelming enthusiasm for the show still bewilders many.
“The commercial value of this exhibition was boosted even before the opening of the show,” Li says. “It was absurd for
some local media to highlight the total value of all the art pieces or the insurance fee — a daunting figure — while skipping over some introduction to the history of Impressionism and the artists.”
Serge Lemoine, director of Musee d’Orsay, looked a bit offended when he had to face repeated questions at news conference about the exact total amount of the value of all the paintings.
“I hope that Chinese art lovers would appreciate a top-ranking exhibition and ignore the price placed on each canvas,” he
replied.
However whether it is to gain an impression about Impressionism or about some meaningless price tag on the artworks, each visitor has his or her own reasons for attending.
“I came all the way from Anhui Province,” says Lin Yan, a 30-something art professor who was admiring Degas’"Ballet Girl." “It was a long journey, but it’s worthwhile. I was very interested in Impressionist art when I studied at university. I’ve read a lot of books and know a lot about the background of each artist. Now standing in front of the original pieces, I feel I am much closer to the inner life of the masters.”
But, according to Mao Aimin, spokeswoman for the Shanghai Art Museum, unlike Professor Lin, most of the visitors to the exhibition are non-professionals.
“Some of them are from the neighboring provinces,” she says.
Manet’s “Le Fifre” is one work where many visitors linger and for many it is the highlight at the show. The reason is simple — they have been told by the media that it is the most valuable piece of all on show.
The painting, depicting a young hussar playing the flute, is said to be worth around 800 million yuan (US$96 million).
“I am here just for this painting,” says Wei Jianguo, a retired worker. “Although I waited almost two hours outside, I felt satisfied when ‘meeting’ this work at last.”
When asked if he knows more about Manet and the painting, Wei shakes his head. “I am not an artist,” he replies. “I am
only curious about it.”
If not equipped with some knowledge of art, few would know that Manet’s technique in the painting broke with traditional
concepts of how to use space and heralded a new and challenging mode of expression and it is this which makes “Le Fifre” a
milestone in art history.
“We prepared a series of seminars to introduce Impressionism to ordinary people who have showed their enthusiasm for art,” says Li. “Rather than a quick tour, we hope that visitors will be able to better appreciate these masterpieces.”
The seats for the “fast-food-like” seminars need to be reserved since the conference hall can only hold 170 people.
“We already have had eight seminars but we plan to add one more on Sunday due to the number of requests made by visitors,”
says Mao.
However, seminars may not be the perfect solution to the problem considering the size of the queues which begin to wait outside the museum at an early hour.
“Education on art can’t be done properly merely through putting on several big shows,” says Su Qing, a local artist. “This reminds me of the economic bubble in art in Japan in the 1980s. Some big Japanese companies were the main buyer of Vincent van Gogh but now van Gogh’s works are quietly stored away in warehouses owned by the companies.”
Su’s words also serve to recall the recent art-buying spree by some local property developers who spent millions of dollars
on a copy of Rodin’s “Thinker” and Cesar Baldaccini’s “Thumb.” “Surely Impressionist masterpieces are treasures of art history,” says Yu Xiaofu, an oil painter. “Their value lies in their special recording of French civilization and of the
human spirit, but not in their face value.”
Yu still clearly recalls one exhibition of 19th-century French landscapes held in 1977 at the Shanghai Art Museum.
“I waited for two hours to see that exhibition,” he says. “The show was liberating for me in my thinking about art.”
Yet, no matter what are the reasons for people to flock to see the Impressionists, a 40-day exhibition is too short.
“We are planning to open the exhibition late into night for the last two days,” says Mao. “That’s the least thing — and the last thing — the museum can offer.”

Date: through January 19, 9am-8pm
Address: 325 Nanjing Rd W.
Admission: 20 yuan for adult, 5 yuan for student
Tel: 6327-2829