Saturday evening is clearly a free evening. That was not so difficult to notice in ‘our’ hutong because of the lively atmosphere. So we feel it really after several weeks, ‘our’hutong. If we walk around in the ‘shopping mall’ it’s a mutually reconnaissance, friendly smiles and a lot of waving hands. Therefore this hutong deserves tonight the attention with a lot of pictures and a short text.

Today we had our Chinese lunch in the gallery because we had to celebrate a kind of opening amongst us. This of course sounds a bit strange after the official one of nearly two weeks ago, but as it always is, there is an explanation.

I have already mentioned a few times the name of my art companion here in the gallery, the Australian Hilary Pollock. We regularly go out for dinner or for visiting Beijing with Hilary and her husband Graem. Just as I had done Hilary took a big role of oil paintings with her from home and had them stretched here. She also had the intention to create a number of paintings on paper in the gallery because we have the facility to do so during our exhibition. We both do so but Hilary spends more time on that then I do. In the series of paintings she took with her, dedicated to the five senses, she already had worked with a variety of Chinese symbols. With this she continued in a series of four different Chinese pots on a real big format of paper. This series she just finished before the official opening.
But after that she started a new series about the four seasons and this she ended this morning. So now you know the explanation for our small celebration in the gallery in the form of a Chinese banquet.
To give an impression of her work I made the pictures you can see here.

If you come home at 10pm after a dinner with Chinese hot pot the mind to write the daily part of this blog is not too big anymore. So I decided to write it in the morning and take advantage of the fact that the sun rises in the East while the rest of the world is still asleep.

A couple of days ago we accidentally met Rob Korfage, Dutchman and teacher at the WAB, the Western Academy of Beijing. This is an international school with departments from pre-kindergarten to high school and many nationalities among which of course Dutch pupils but also a lot of Koreans and Chinese. The building complex lies just a few kilometres from our place and so an appointment was made quite quick and settled for this afternoon.

It’s really amazing what this school offers in facilities. Every teacher an assistant, a pupils restaurant with a real international menu, beautiful classrooms, big libraries, an Apple laptop for even the small children of 6 years old, for the older children the kind of lounges you also find in the more expensive establishments and a huge row of new school buses. But if you pay $ 20,000 a year for your child you may expect something of course, even if this money is probably paid by the company or the embassy you work for.
I found it very stimulating to see how much attention had been given to art, big music rooms with a recording studio, pupils filming in the corridor, a film studio, a theatre where pupils were rehearsing, but also big bronzes of scientists like Galileï and Newton besides other modern art objects in the garden.
Accidentally there were two exhibitions of pupils of the school, one of 10 year old children also teached by Rob and one of the elder high school pupils. Both showed a very good level. Is it to be expected that the picture above is made by a 10 year old child that took ‘The Scream’ of Munch as starting point but gave it a Chinese turn if you have a look at the face?
I hope that the other photos give a good impression of what I had to tell today.

And this hot pot, together with Rob in a place where till now he had never seen another Westerner, was again another very positive experience!

Today was Great Wall day. Because when you are in Beijing, you of course have to go there. Thirteen years ago we had already brought a visit but then to the Badaling area, that part of the wall you always see on pictures and where most of the tourists go to. So we thought it more interesting to visit two other parts, Simatái and Jinshanling, lying not too far from each other. It was a drive of about 120 km bur it was worth it.
But first we had to leave Beijing of course. Thirteen years ago it was a real eye opener to watch the traffic jam of 4 km with almost all new cars into the direction of the centre. So it was not really remarkable to see this jam again this morning, it was only much longer now. The real surprise was the traffic jam out of town. But this is just a remark aside.

I can now understand why most of the tourist buses are going to Badaling. This is much more accessible by foot, for the two other destinations you have to climb a lot. It’s possible to restrict this with the aid of a kind of chair-lift and a mini-train, but nevertheless climbing is necessary. Simatái was beautiful, Jinshanling impressive! It may be that the wall no too long ago has been restored and may be it’s probably not always done in a historically justified way, it remains a unique experience to walk on this Great Wall. At Jinshanling it was lovely quiet, just a few tourists around sometimes. This gave a very special feeling, just being alone on this magnificent treasure from times long gone in all peace and silence. Wonderful! I hope the pictures represent some of this feeling.

To make it easy you have the MoMA in New York, the IMMA in Dublin, the Mukha in Antwerp, the MAMAC in Nice and the NAMOC in Beijing. The insiders of course know now that I’m talking about museums for modern art. And of course they like to use this secret language to show they are special people with a knowledge of the world.
So today we were at the NAMOC, The National Art Museum of China. We thought this would be fun and fun it was! But what did we see there? Well, it was like being in Europe: Caspar Friedrich, the great romantic German painter from the first half of the 19th century, Emil Nolde as a representative of the German Expressionism from the first half of the 20th century, Gerhard Richter as an exponent of the modern German art and a lot of other Germans. All these exhibitions were of course organised in connection with the Olympics because all in Beijing is organised in connection with the Olympics. And if this is not the case always a phrase is invented to do so.
I thought it interesting to show a picture of just a small painting by Friedrich that without any foreknowledge could have passed like a Chinese artwork. More romantic it cannot be: two men discussing the moon.
The solo exhibition of Richter was really impressing. Especially his big abstract paintings (see picture) had a lot of impact. I really would like to know how he makes them, how he paints layer after layer and what kinds of technical tricks he uses. Those who know my work probably will understand why this intrigues me.
The fact that I can show pictures of these exhibitions means that making photo’s in the museum wasn’t a problem at all, this in contradiction with the situation in the Western world.
On the outside of the NAMOC there was indeed a sign that said it was prohibited but inside the building no one said anything about it. Some paintings even were put on the memory card in the smallest details. May be to do something with it at home? Al last this is China!

Because we were in the neighbourhood we went after our visit to the back of the Forbidden City. Here lies, as an extremist sign in the flat Beijing, a park with a high hill. But it is an artificial one, originating from the mud that was put there when the big moat around the Forbidden City was excavated. From the top you are supposed to have a beautiful view over the roofs of the imperial quarters. Well, just have a look at the two pictures made here on a normal Beijing day without any special weather circumstances. Isn’t it wise of those athletes who cancelled already their participation in the Olympic marathon?