Past Exhibitions

West Meets East:Retrospective Exhibition of Marc Riboud’s Photography No.3 Special Exhibition Hall, 3F 2024.09.26 - 2024.12.10 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France and the "China-France Year of Cultural Tourism". On this significant celebratory year, the Hunan Museum, in collaboration with the Musee National des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, will hold the West Meets East:Retrospective Exhibition of Marc Riboud’s Photography in the special exhibition hall on the third floor of the Hunan Museum from September 26 to December 10, this exhibition is free to the public. This exhibition is organized by the Hunan Museum and the Musee National des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, co-organized by the Association Les amis de Marc Riboud, Ambassade de France en Chine and Institut francais de Chine. This exhibition is also an important visual art project of the "2024 Croisements Festival-Special Presentation for the 60th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and France". This exhibition selects 118 pieces/sets of classic photographic works by Marc Riboud from the collection of the Musee National des Arts Asiatiques- Guimet, including the valuable photos taken by Marc during his more than 20-times visits to China from 1957 to 2010. With Marc’s acute instinct, unique artistic insight and abundant photographic language, he captured the real pictures of various classes of Chinese society, and objectively introduced the huge transformation of history and society in China from 1950s to 2010 to the West. Marc’s photographic works not only have extremely high artistic value but also monumental historical significance. His works have witnessed great historical changes in China, many classic moments have become the epitome of China in the 20th century. As Marc Riboud said, "The countries I love are like my friends. I like to see them again and understand their development and changes. Therefore, I often return to China. Everything here is developing faster than in other places. Even a careful person can see the eternity of things under this restless appearance."	The Pure Heart of Art, The Nostalgia in Ink -- Exhibition of Su Gaoyu's Works No.3 Special Exhibition Hall, 3F 2024.08.17 - 2024.09.10 The Hunan Museum will hold the exhibition “ The Pure Heart of Art, The Nostalgia in Ink -- Exhibition of Su Gaoyu's Works” in the Special Exhibition Hall on the third floor from August 17, 2024 to September 10. The exhibition was jointly hosted by the Hunan Museum, the Hunan Artists Association, the Hunan Provincial Painting Academy, and co-organized by the Publicity Department of the CPC Xiangxi Prefecture Committee. The exhibition has selected more than 100 pieces (sets) of Su Gao Yu's works, covering Su's creative process of more than 40 years. It is a retrospective exhibition on stage-by-stage summary.To prominently showcase Su's artistic styles and creative concepts in different periods, this exhibition selected Su’s representative works from each period so that the audience can have a profound comparison when viewing. The curatorial team communicated and coordinated with Su himself many times during the preparation of the exhibition. As the works themselves are mainly expressive freehand painting themed on flower-and-bird, considering the limitation of the exhibition area, in order to maximize the presentation of the characteristics of the works themselves, this exhibition still broke the museum's conventional curatorial method of using time clues as the vein, and eliminated the unit descriptions, so as to allow the works themselves to go to the audience for a dialogue. In terms of the flow of visitors, the form designer, in accordance with the characteristics of the area itself, did not borrow too much from the exhibition wall to set up a diversion area, but took the audience's point of sight as the core, and created a visiting atmosphere in line with the tone of the works step by step. Despite the absence of large-scale thematic works, the expressive freehand paintings themed on flower-and-bird reveal a vast world within small details. The exhibition strives to foster innovation in contemporary Chinese freehand paintings themed on flower-and-bird and encourage a deeper understanding and preservation of China's rich cultural heritage.	She Walks in Beauty: Women of the Han Dynasty and Rome Empire No.2 Special Exhibition Hall, 1F 2024.06.15 - 2024.10.07 As two great civilizations that shine in the East and the West, the Han Dynasty and Rome have reshaped the ancient society structurally. During this prosperous period, the life picture of women has also presented a new look. They, with wisdom and ingenuity, weave a bridge connecting the two civilizations with their fingers; they overthrow stereotypes, challenge new roles in various fields, and shape new traditions; they are full of energy, light up the extraordinary in the ordinary, and look for the lovely serendipity in the world. This exhibition focuses on women in the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire, which rose in the East and the West after the Axial Age, and takes the three main scenes of women's lives, such as family life, emotional life and social life, as the context. Through more than 200 exhibits (sets), the rich spiritual world and female power are presented with real objects, and the female in cultural relics are brought back to the historical society, politics and culture, which they belong to, reveal the disappointed female narratives in history, and reflect the general picture of women's life and social roles in the era of the prosperity of Eastern and Western cultures. "Who comes to mind? She walks in beauty". At this moment, as history and reality communicate, let us walk into the lives of ancient women under the glory of the empire, find the vivid personality and mission of the times they are endowed with, feel the style of women in the Han Dynasty and Rome, and appreciate the infinite charm of ancient civilization.
The Flavor of Hunan Ⅱ Art Hall, 1F 2024.02.03 - 2024.03.17 “The Flavor of Hunan Ⅱ” delves into the cultural artifacts related to liquor in the Hunan Museum. It combines local liquor customs, liquor culture, and liquor brands of Hunan Province. Through three perspectives — historical humanities, geographical conditions, and liquor customs — it interprets the profound history and tradition of Hunan liquor, its rich artisan culture, abundant revolutionary history, diverse cultural heritage, and intangible cultural legacy. The exhibition is divided into four major sections, including "Liquor Culture in Hunan Museum" "Brewing Fine Liquor in Hunan" "Brewing Techniques," and "Fragrant Bistro". Through a sensory experience that engages sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, it guides the audience to appreciate the charm of Hunan liquor culture.	Longyuan Rose-The Exhibition of Painted Pottery in Gansu Province No.1 Special Exhibition Hall, 1F 2023.12.22 - 2024.03.31 Ancestors in the Gansu province took nature as basis, selected plants, animals, rivers and other natural objects in the nature as the source of creation. Through the expression of dots, lines and planes, they not only created vibrant and charming patterns on potteries, such as plant pattern, animal pattern, swirling pattern and geometric pattern, combining with human beings, they also created dance pattern, gods and men pattern which are rich in thoughts. The flamboyant and bold red and black, painting the sun, moon and stars, painting all living things, painting what were seen and thought, from depicting the shape to the full nature of objects, the naive stroke from straight lines to curves, from pictogram to geometric, from realism to ideogram, which are the origin of the great beauty of China. The painted pottery in Gansu province is the origin of the ornamental art in China, its colorful, simple and bright, bold and flexible features have left a strong mark in the history of Chinese art. In this exhibition, 210 pieces of Neolithic painted pottery from Gansu province are specially selected, including representative artifacts spanning 5000 years from the Dadiwan culture period to the Shajing culture period. Through the interpretation of various types of decorations on the painted pottery, the exhibition shows the changes in the aesthetic tastes of the ancestors, the advancement of knowledge and concepts, interprets the relationship between human beings and the natural environment, and then analyzes the initial features of the primitive religious beliefs and the formation of abstract symbols, aiming at tracing the childhood memories of the Chinese nation, and providing the deep driving force from the cultural genes for the success of the story of China.	Everlasting Prayer:Statues and Beliefs in Meishan Cultural Area No.2 Themed Exhibition Hall, 3F 2023.12.19 - 2024.12.19 With the collision and fusion with other cultures, Meishan culture has evolved into a cultural form that flows with the genes of the Southern Chu(was a Zhou dynasty vassal state) culture, but also blends elements of Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and the influence of other ethnic groups in the south. Meishan culture is not only a cultural phenomenon in the Meishan region of central Hunan in ancient times, but also a living culture that has been inherited to the present day, and is a typical representative of the cultural practices of many ethnic minorities such as Yao and Miao in southwest China. Ancient pre-Qin Hunan realm, is the location of barbarian tribes such as "Jiu Li" "Three Miao". During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, the Chu people went to the south of China, and in this fertile land of myths, beliefs and sorcery, the magnificent and brilliant Chu witch culture in the South was nurtured and grown. The Chu culture was gradually assimilated by the dissolution of the Central Plains culture, but the original beliefs of the Chu deities and sacrificial customs were preserved in the ancient Meishan area, which is "not connected with the outside world". The objects of worship may have changed, but the primitive, instinctive and simple desire to seek good fortune and avoid bad luck in real life constitutes the eternal spiritual treasure of the folk beliefs of the Meishan Cultural area. By selecting more than 100 pieces of wood carvings and archaeological relics from the Hunan Museum and related institutions in the central Hunan province since the Ming and Qing dynasties, this exhibition shows the origin and basic features of folk beliefs in this cultural area, with a view to leading the audience to appreciate the cultural forms with unique local characteristics of Hunan and stimulating the audience to think about historical and cultural inheritance, cultural diversity, and the perception of life. This exhibition, as part of Hunan Museum's "Hunan Culture" exhibition series, "Treasures Revisited--Hunan Museum's 'Discovery Series' Original Thematic Exhibitions", was awarded the State Administration of Cultural Heritage's "Carrying Forward the Outstanding Traditional Chinese Culture and Cultivating the Socialist Core Values" Thematic Exhibitions Recommendation Project for the year 2023.