Appreciating art: First learn how to break glass

Visitor numbers

Judging by visitor numbers, the most prominent existence on the country's art map is indisputably the National Art Museum of China. Last year it received 1.5 million visitors, 300,000 more than the year before. Over the past Spring Festival season, which lasts about a week, 550,000 people visited the museum, drawn by a group of shows featuring Chinese folk arts such as ancient printmaking.

Wu Weishan, sculptor, is now the museum's director. The exhibition with the largest visitor number last year was the one that put on display hand-painted cartoon books from the museum's collection, he says.

"An estimated 270,000 people saw the exhibition. And I guess the figure has a lot to do with a sense of nostalgia."

He says the museum should dig into its own goldmine of collection, which consists of about 100,000 pieces of art.

"Curatorship is what we need to re-interpret the history of Chinese art and to tell stories that resonate with our contemporary viewers."

At one point the museum was castigated for renting out space for paid art shows. Today, self-curated exhibitions account for one third of the museum's total displays. That translates to about 30 exhibitions a year.

"Over the past few years we've been trying to increase the number of self-curated shows," Wu says. "But since the funds the State provides are insufficient to support the museum's daily running and various activities including mounting exhibitions, we have no choice but to rent out space from time to time."