The He Yang and Wu Qian Modern Art Gallery, located at 25 Douban Lane in Dongcheng District, is Beijing's first private art gallery. It was established in October 1996, and its collection consists mainly of paintings by He Yang and Wu Qian, a husband-wife team.
He Yang was born in 1942 in Beijing, and he began painting early in his childhood. He loves Western art, and is an accomplished scholar of ancient literature, history and philosophy. From the point of view of his being a painter, his interest in natural sciences and knowledge in this field are unexpected. From his painting, Xishuangbanna Jungle and Bangladesh Tiger, his thorough knowledge of systematic botany is obvious. In the early 1990s He Yang established the genre of "New-Thematicism," which takes in China's ancient culture as well as absorbing advanced Western literary theory and methods. He Yang has created superb modern Oriental paintings, and this museum devoted to paintings with modern themes thus came into being.
In 1992, He Yang met both the Indian and Iranian presidents, and presented them with his paintings as gifts. In 1995, he was invited to present his paintings to King Juan Carlos I of Spain and Queen Sophia. He was also invited to visit Tehran and Berlin, making his contributions to international cultural exchanges. In March 1996, Peter Ludwig, a celebrated art collector, came to China. He went to visit the couple at their gallery, and bought 10 paintings for his collection. He later displayed them in an art gallery of Chinese paintings in Germany.
Wu Qian is a painter full of creative enthusiasm. She learned painting from such great Chinese masters as Ye Qianyu and Li Kuchan, and is a profoundly accomplished painter. In the 1980s, one of her representative paintings, entitled Night, was chosen as an exhibit for the Monte Carlo International Modern Art Exhibition. Her gongbi paintings of rivers and lakes are in a unique style, and vividly recall scenes of her childhood hometown.
The He Yang and Wu Qian Modern Art Gallery enjoys the patronage of domestic and international art lovers. In addition to exhibiting the couple's paintings, the gallery has also held exhibitions of the works of foreign students at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, of modern photography, and of carpets.
In order to expand available exhibition space, the couple spent all their savings on building a new exhibition hall, located in the Yujinxiang Garden of Chaoyang District, Beijing. It is a two-story building in the architectural style of Northern Europe. This multi-functional building is divided into the assembly, living and exhibition areas. The exhibition area is on two floors. The first floor displays traditional paintings never before exhibited, and the second floor is mainly for the display of new works.
Yang Qiming is the deputy curator of the He Yang and Wu Qian Modern Art Gallery.
Further Information:
To visit the original He Yang and Wu Qian Modern Art Gallery, take Bus No. 113 and get off at Dongmencang, then walk for 200 meters.
To visit the new He Yang and Wu Qian Modern Art Gallery, take Bus No. 418 and get off at Yujinxiang Garden, then walk to No. 1128 Changdiancun .
Open: 8：30 -- 17：00
Admission: 5 yuan
Tel: 8610-65939381
(China.org.cn May 1, 2005)
