Famous Works Permanently Donated to the Hunan Provincial Museum

On this year’s International Museum Day (IMD), a donation ceremony was held when 64 works of calligraphy and painting created by a famous local artist Yan Jialong, were permanently donated to the Hunan Provincial Museum.

The ceremony starting at 10 am, was hosted by Chen Yuanping, deputy director of Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and director of Hunan Provincial Administration of Cultural Relics and was attended by several officials from the provincial and municipal governments, representatives of the field and some members of the artist’s family, including his widow Deng Yuanzhen.

At the ceremony, You Zhenqun, deputy director of the Hunan provincial Museum said in her speech, “With focus on both collection and exhibition, the Hunan Provincial Museum has always devoted itself to perfecting its collection, preserving cultural heritage, and disseminating scientific ideas and civilization, and improving the quality of the citizens. In recent years, several art masters closely connected with Hunan Province successively donated their works and materials of great importance to our museum, which means our scientific ideas and professional spirits are recognized and trusted by a growing number of professionals.”

Huang Weidong, deputy secretary general of the Provincial government addressed in his speech, “Yan’s families donated his works to the Hunan Provincial Museum, which is a great contribution to the public welfare and cultural cause and shows their trust to museums in Hunan. We can also see from it that public donation becomes very popular in Hunan.” Then, a representative of his families also said, museum is the best place for Yan’s works no matter in preservation conditions or in cultural continuity.

After all the speeches, Ms.Deng Yuanzhen donated one of Yan’s representative works –a piece of calligraphy couplet to Li Jianmao, vice director of the Hunan Provincial Museum and she was awarded a collection certificate by the museum at the same time.

Yan Jialong, born in Lianyuan, Hunan in 1928, ever learned from famous masters including Fu Baoshi and Pan Tianshou. His calligraphy, both with force and style, is famous in the field. His artistic style can be obviously recognized from the donated works including calligraphy, paintings and sketches of the frescos in the Yongle Palace.