The Exhibition And Dissemination Of Foreign Art By Chinese Art Museums

The germination and rise of Chinese art museums coincide with the mature stage of the development of modern public museums in the world,leading to an unavoidable influence of the Western theories and empirical methods on the theory and practice of art museums of China.In the process of self-construction and development,Chinese art museums are rooted in the unique local soil of history and culture,transplanting,practicing,verifying and correcting the Western theories and experiences,and have progressed all the way to the present.In the context of the blending of Chinese and Western art museums,they exhibit and disseminate foreign art,which is not only a visual description of the Chinese public’s acceptance of foreign culture,but also a local practice of seeking Chinese-style transformation as an outcome of modernization under the background of globalization.Taking Chinese art museums as the starting point,the organization,analysis and study of foreign art exhibitions introduced by them in China not only supplements the theoretical and practical research content of traditional Chinese art museums,but also is the specific argumentation for the feasibility of study and re-writing of the global and local art history with the art museums as a carrier.In addition,as a case of local inquiry of the Western theories and experiences,it will also play a role of inspiration for local research in other disciplines.From the germination of the museum concept in modern times and the initial establishment of the modern art exhibition system;to the ideals and practice of the pioneers in building world art museums;to the formal start of Chinese art museums after the early adversity and rebirth of the new China;to the substantive exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign art museums after the reform and opening-up,and to the self-shaping of Chinese art museums based on the thinking of theory and practice of the world’s new museums under the context of global localization,as it were,the introduction and hosting of foreign art exhibitions has always been accompanied by the germination,rise and development of Chinese art museums.This paper is based on the factual evidence of the exhibition and dissemination of foreign art by Chinese art museums.Under the hint of the interdisciplinary horizon of art theory,with the perspective of new museology as the starting point,with the intercultural research tentacle introduced,and the history of Sino-foreign art exchanges as the auxiliary line for observation,this paper attempts to study and discuss the “localized” development of the theory and practice of art museum within the context of the development track of Chinese art museums.This paper starts from the three important dimensions of new museology: the narrative of objects,the interaction of people,and the construction of cultural ecology in the process of social integration as the progressive context,which constitutes the main frame of this research.It attempts to carefully observe the functional construction and self-shaping of Chinese art museums in the concrete context of cross-cultural dialogue between Chinese and foreign art museums by learning and obtaining inspiration from foreign art’s exhibition and dissemination practice in China,thereby providing practical experience and theoretical reference for the cross-cultural dialogue in the context of globalization.“Things” are the objects that art museums study and exhibit,and are the starting point and basis for art museums to expand their narrative through collections,exhibitions,texts,and more.The exhibition of foreign art in China is essentially a cultural export with “things” as the carrier.In this process,based on the perspective of local review and re-export,Chinese art museums cannot possibly be a direct copy of Western narrative logic.The foreign art exhibition will inevitably require the intervention of Chinese narrative logic,which is the basic principle for Chinese art museums to participate in the construction of world civilization.As the core of the theory and practice of new museology,“human” reflects the switching between one-way and interaction,isolation and participation,unity and pluralism,and between other multiple relationships under the change of new and old museum paradigms.In learning from foreign art exhibitions in China,the problems and thinking caused by the interaction between Chinese art museums and the elite,the public,and academic institutions further prove that Chinese art museums,as a public art domain,rely on …… promoted by the public.The transformation of “publicity” must be rooted in local cultural practices.As an important concept in new museology,“community museum” is a specific manifestation of museum in promoting diversified culture across geographic region and ethnic boundary.The introduction and hosting of foreign art exhibitions as the content of practice of Chinese art museums’ cross-cultural dissemination are the embodiment of upholding public freedom goal of art and an open attitude toward the cultures of The Other.In spite of unavoidable difference and interpretation that come along and various realistic gaps based on historical objective reasons,learning from The Other and local review are still necessary paths for Chinese art museums to seek common ground while shelving differences and realize the intergrowth of cultures.To sum up,the practice of exhibition and dissemination of foreign art has built a“problem situation” of self-review for Chinese art museums.The fundamental appeal of the Chinese art museum’s self-shaping is to calibrate its “borrowed identity” from the perspective of local review.The origin of calibration is the adherence to the spirit of Chinese art and the correction of the inertial dependence on Western experience.That is also what is emphasized in this paper: to explore the spirit of Chinese art deeply by learning from The Other,and use the “Chinese eyes” to enter the context of globalization,which is the top priority for carrying out substantial cross-cultural dialogue.