Many painters and sculptors can only dream of having a museum dedicated to their work. But on December 1, eight of the mainland's most famous modern artists will receive such an honour when the Institutions of Chinart opens in Wangpoyan, western Sichuan.
Set in the lush green forests and near-vertical slopes of Mount Qingcheng outside historic Dujiangyan city, an hour's drive west of Chengdu, the project marks the first time a government body has funded contemporary art. The 100 million yuan (HK$111 million) cluster of museums is the brainchild of Liu Junlin, the art-loving Communist Party secretary of Dujiangyan, and will be financed by the city government and local developer Guangju Minsheng.
Critics have hailed the project as perhaps the most significant development in mainland contemporary art since an avant-garde exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing was closed after an artist fired a gun at her installation in the heady weeks before the June 4, 1989 crackdown.
The project also represents a personal triumph for the eight chosen artists - Zhou Chunya, Zhang Xiaogang, He Duoling, Zhang Peili, Wu Shanzhuan, Wang Guangyi, Fang Lijun and Yue Minjun - several of whom were once identified with student dissent and labelled subversive by authorities.
'People used to complain about contemporary art and criticise it but this shows it's valuable,' says Lu Peng, a professor at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, who selected the eight artists. 'This project shows that contemporary art has finally been accepted by the government and by the people.'
Each artist is being represented by a museum of 960 square metres; in addition there will be a 5,000 square metre general museum and a research institute dedicated to contemporary art. Lu says his choice of the eight, who are in their 40s to 60s, was a personal decision based on their significance in the canon of mainland art since the country opened to the outside world in 1978.
'Each of them has been significant in different phases of the past 30 years,' he says. 'This project shows what direction things are taking in China. Without the opening up of the last 30 years, none of this would have been possible.'