A pick-me-up

I received an unexpected telephone call a couple of days ago from an old Chinese friend. Through contacts at the Australian Embassy, she had received a couple of invitations to the opening of a new exhibition of Aboriginal art - Utopia: A Picture Story - at the National Art Museum Of China (or NAMOC - but I always think that acronym sounds disturbingly like a character in some fantasy novel). Knowing that I was an arty sort of fellow, she thought this would be a good pretext for us to catch up and invited me to join her.

It is indeed a stunning show. And it's only on till next Friday, so hurry on down there.

Also, by lucky chance, I discovered that the long-running exhibition on the ground floor there of artwork from the Dunhuang Buddhist grottoes (almost all reproductions, but still pretty awe-inspiring) was still open. I have been repeatedly failing to get around to going to that for the past couple of months, although it has been often recommended to me. It finally closes tomorrow. I'm so glad I got to see this. (And it was FREE! Rather to my surprise, once we'd got past the front gate with the aid of our invitations to the 'Utopia' opening ceremony, there was no further security or ticket-checking within the building, so we were able to wander around at will and see everything. Something of an oversight on the part of the museum's management, I feel - but I'm not complaining.)

It's a curious quirk at NAMOC that they often seem to 'hide' the most interesting stuff away in the easily overlooked rooms at the extreme eastern and western ends of each of the three floors of galleries. This was even true of the Dunhuang show, where - impressive as the huge reclining Buddha statue and the dozens of mural paintings were - some of the most striking items were adjuncts to the main exhibition, tucked away in the wings at either end: two collections of modern paintings; the first, sketches and copies of the ancient artworks, or new paintings in imitation of them (there was one I found especially haunting, 'Noon Break' by an artist called Wang Yuliang: a beautifully simple composition of a nomad sitting on the ground, his head nodding in slumber, but still holding firmly on to the reins of the trio of horses standing around him); the second, much more contemporary in style, mostly of the rugged desert landscapes surrounding Dunhuang, in the far western province of Gansu.

It was gorgeous weather yesterday, as well: bright Spring sunshine again, after a few days of choking smog and dust. Seeing an old friend again. And a serendipitous opportunity to enjoy not one but two exhibitions (well, three actually: I also briskly toured the galleries on the 3rd Floor, which were mainly given over to an interestingly diverse - but mostly pretty awful - collection of what appeared to be Chinese oil paintings done in a late 19th or early 20th Century European style). It quite lifted my spirits - which had fallen very low in the past few days, with all the concerns about the situation in the western provinces and the Internet harassment I've been suffering at the hands of those assclowns, The Kafka Boys. I fear I was initially a little grumpy with my Chinese friend, griping about my censorship hassles and my worries about getting a visa renewal in a few months..... but gradually my clouds of gloom were dispelled, and by the end of the afternoon I was feeling quite chirpy and positive again.

How long will it last, I wonder?