Art Exhibition At The Temple #1

Art exhibition at the temple... more

by Alfred Ng

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Dimensions

10.000 x 8.000 inches

Title

Art Exhibition At The Temple #1

Artist

Alfred Ng

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Art exhibition at the temple
My ability to read Chinese was very helpful and enable me to explore the city easily. I can pretty much out and about without the use of a map. Whenever I got lost I could just get in the nearest subway line or a cab to find my way home. One day, I was just exploring the art and design district near the Tiananmen Square area. When I saw a sign indicated a tax museum nearby in a hutong. I decided to go checked it out however with all the turns in the narrow alley I somehow got lost. When I was trying to find my way out of the hutong I noticed a large red banner. It was for an art exhibition for the twenty national flower and bird painters.
After I walked up the steps next to the banner it lead me into a large open area and in front of me was a beautiful Chinese temple. This temple once was a palace for a future emperor and after his ascent to the throne he converted it to a Temple. Recently, this temple has become an exhibition hall. One great thing with all the museums and exhibitions in Beijing are the admission fee is very low and sometimes even free. The exhibition was for twenty of China’s best young and middle age bird and flower painters. While I was there I was the lone visitor for this free exhibition. They were some of the best paintings I seen in Beijing so far. All the paintings were done on rice paper using the traditional Chinese painting technique. Artists able to used few brush strokes and bring the subject alive. Some of the paintings are very loose and almost abstract and some are very detail and well planned out. I was amazed with the size of some of the paintings one artist has three very impressive ones and all are 2x3 meters each. I was also interest how they were presented: all were mounted on rice paper and then stretched on stretchers with no glass to protect them. I notice they have copies of the large color catalogues in a display case. I admired the work so much and wanted to purchase one. Thinking it might be expensive one; I approached the man sitting behind the desk by the door and told him I would like to buy one. At first, he asked me what province I was from. I told him I am an artist from Canada and just visiting Beijing. He smile and without saying a word he took out one copy put it in a beautiful bag and handed it to me. When I asked him for the price of the catalogue he just waved his hand and said no need!
I was very surprised and touched by his kind offer; I gave him one of my postcards which have one of my paintings on it. He looked at it and said it was very nice painting and asked me to sign it for him. I wrote my Chinese name for him. Another wonderful experience in Beijing for me.

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October 13th, 2011