Masterful display of world treasures makes quite an impression

The Impressionist exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, which has attracted more than 95,000 viewers since its opening last month, must surely be one of the easier shows to curate. After all, the priceless collection of 48 French masterpieces speaks for itself.

And yet, such incredible works present a challenge: how could a curator make these familiar images fresh? And how should they be presented in Asia, where there's no venue to match the elegance of the converted old railway station that houses the Musee D'Orsay in Paris, or the charm of the smaller French museums that lent artworks?

Beijing and Hong Kong approached the challenge in markedly different ways.

Museums around the world spend millions of dollars to ensure lighting, architecture, interiors and layout work together to bring out the best in their collections. In Beijing, where the exhibition started its China tour, the paintings were given a regal, solemn, almost cold treatment.

Clearly, the National Museum's curators wanted to emphasise the paintings' status as national treasures. They were shown in cavernous dark rooms, with each piece surrounded by red ropes and armed guards.

The need for security was obvious: crowds gathered before each piece, pushing, shoving and squinting. Perhaps they were more aggressive than usual because the dim rooms and the distance they were kept from the paintings conspired to make the details in smaller works hard to see.

The paintings were also lit with bright overhead spotlights - perhaps in an attempt to make them seem dramatic. It might have worked for black and white calligraphy. But the subtle beauty of the Impressionists can't be forced, and the masterly interpretations of sunlight were lost under the artificial glare.