Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum Chen Junyu
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Since its establishment in 1997, Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen has gone through 28 years of development and is about to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Over the past 30 years since its founding, Guan Shanyue Art Museum has carried out various curatorial practices and has received extensive support from the national art museum community.
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1.
The Development History and Collection Characteristics of Guan Shanyue Art Museum
Guan Shanyue Art Museum was founded in 1997. As a cultural institution established during a special historical period, its birth is closely linked to the pulse of the times of the city of Shenzhen. At that time, just as Hong Kong was returning to the motherland, Mr. Guan Shanyue donated 813 of his works and a large amount of documentary materials to the museum free of charge. The collection of these precious artistic heritage has laid an important artistic and cultural foundation for Guan Shanyue Art Museum and even the city of Shenzhen, and enhanced the historical and cultural accumulation of the city.
The Guan Shanyue Art Museum was completed on June 25, 1997
On this basis, Guan Shanyue Art Museum has always taken the artistic research of Mr. Guan Shanyue as its core academic vein, committed to strengthening this cultural positioning through systematic practices, and gradually establishing distinct academic brand characteristics in the process.
2.
Challenges And Achievements In Art Research And Exhibitions Of Guan Shanyue
Since its establishment, the academic work of the Guan Shanyue Art Museum has received strong support from professional institutions in the national art museum community. Especially in the field of 20th-century art research, many authoritative scholars in the academic circle, such as Professors Chen Lüsheng and Li Weiming, have continuously provided academic guidance to the Guan Shanyue Art Museum. This has not only provided a profound theoretical foundation for the research system but also nurtured a group of young scholars who continue to grow in this field.
Building on such academic research, Guan Shanyue Art Museum has analyzed and studied Mr. Guan Shanyue's art within the context of the development of fine arts in the 20th century. It has successively curated and launched a series of thematically exhibitions with academic depth, such as "Journey to Foreign Lands" and "Earth-Shattering". Gradually, substantial research results have been formed. By 2011, Guan Shanyue Art Museum successfully was selected as a "National Key Art Museum".
A series of thematically focused exhibitions with academic depth held at Guan Shanyue Art Museum
After becoming a key art museum, Guan Shanyue Art Museum also faces new challenges and opportunities. When visitors go to Guan Shanyue Art Museum, they often mainly aim to appreciate the artworks of Mr. Guan Shanyue. The high public expectation for the exhibition of Guan Shanyue's art is a normal situation that Guan Shanyue Art Museum faces, which also prompts the museum to continuously explore ways to activate traditional resources through innovative means. For this reason, the museum has continuously deepened the planning of special exhibitions on Guan Shanyue, such as the exhibition of collected fine works represented by the "Shanyue Danqing" exhibition, which was also selected into the "National Art Museum Collection Fine Works Exhibition Season" project of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
"Shanyue Danqing" Exhibition
Similar cases also include the early attempts at digital curation by the Guan Shanyue Art Museum. Its curated sketch-themed exhibition "There's Another World Where the Journey Is Hard" featured a joint display of works by artists such as Guan Shanyue, Pang Xunqin, and Wu Zuoren, created during their sketching trips in the southwest and northwest regions.
In recent years, the traveling exhibitions of Guan Shanyue's art have further developed, with their content continuously enriched. They cover special topics such as his long scroll creations, plum blossom themes, paintings of rivers and gorges, and sketches from Dunhuang, with the exhibition tour reaching places like Dunhuang and Xinjiang. The newly launched exhibition "Innovations in the Way of Painting" has collaborated with the Chengdu Art Museum and, with academic support from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, further deepened the research on Guan Shanyue's art and his innovative ideas.
3.
Guan Shanyue Art Museum and the Cultural Development of Shenzhen
While engaging in academic development, Guan Shanyue Art Museum has also been deeply involved in the construction of Shenzhen's urban culture.
As one of the larger-scale professional art venues in Shenzhen, Guan Shanyue Art Museum has taken the initiative to assume the mission of promoting the development of design art in Shenzhen.
Guan Shanyue Art Museum has taken the initiative to assume the mission of promoting the development of design art in Shenzhen
In 1999, Shenzhen hosted the "Design Exhibition Area of the 9th National Art Exhibition", which drew the city's attention to art and prompted the municipal government to incorporate design culture into its urban development strategy. In 2008, Shenzhen was awarded the title of "City of Design" by UNESCO, with the Guan Shanyue Art Museum playing a key role. The museum has systematically built a platform for the display and research of urban design culture by continuously curating professional exhibitions such as the Shenzhen Graphic Design Exhibition, and hosting national-level projects including the "Design Exhibition Area of the 11th National Art Exhibition" and the Ministry of Culture's "China Design Exhibition". This has formed an academic dual track that equally emphasizes Guan Shanyue's artistic research.
4.
The digital construction of Guan Shanyue Art Museum
In response to the new demands of urban development, especially the trend of integrating art and technology, Guan Shanyue Art Museum has actively responded to the government's cultural development strategy.
The "Remolding and Reengineering" digital art exhibition, launched in 2022, showcased many important works by leading domestic digital artists and innovatively used the concept of virtual digital humans for exhibition narration.
Using the concept of virtual digital humans for exhibition narration
In recent years, the iteration of digital art has been accelerating. Many digital art concepts continue to emerge and then be eliminated. After expert argumentation, Guan Shanyue Art Museum established the theme of "digital humans". The final presentation effect is highly consistent with the urban temperament of Shenzhen and has been widely recognized by the public. Since then, the museum has further extended its planning to include digital art exhibitions such as the "Plant Intelligence" themed exhibition, continuing to explore the expressive possibilities of digital art.
Plant Intelligence Project
This year, Guan Shanyue Art Museum plans to launch the "New Future" artificial intelligence-themed exhibition, focusing on artistic creation practices in the context of artificial intelligence technology. The artist group from the Central Academy of Fine Arts has also deeply participated in the above-mentioned digital art project, and their academic support is of great value to Guan Shanyue Art Museum's exploration of digital art exhibitions.
Looking back on its 28-year development history, Guan Shanyue Art Museum has always been based on academic research. In the dual mission of inheriting Guan Shanyue's artistic spirit and promoting the development of urban design culture, it has gradually built an academic ecology that emphasizes both tradition and the contemporary. Its recent practices in the field of digital art mark that Guan Shanyue Art Museum is actively responding to the new requirements put forward by technological changes for the functions of art museums, and continuously exploring the innovative development path of cultural institutions in the new era.
Introduction of the keynote speaker
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Chen Junyu
Chen Junyu was born in Yangjiang, Guangdong in May 1972. He graduated from the Department of Chinese Painting, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1996. He has been working at Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum since 1996 and currently serves as the director of Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum and a national first-class artist. He also holds concurrent positions as the president of Shenzhen Youth Artists Association, a member of the Theory and Art Committee of Guangdong Artists Association, and a director of Shenzhen Artists Association. He is a member of China Artists Association.
Editor-in-Chief / He Yisha
Responsible Editor / Du Yinzhu
Editor / Wang Yifan
Text Compilation / Li Ze
