National Art Museum of China

The National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) is the only national museum of the plastic arts in China.

It started construction in 1958, and was officially opened under Chairman Mao’s inscription of “National Art Museum of China” in 1963. Soon it became a national cultural landmark. The museum building is a pavilion-like shape with yellow glazed tiles on the roof and a roofed corridor around the exterior, imitating traditional Chinese architectural style. The building is 18,000 square meters and holds 21 exhibition halls that cover 6,660 square meters. A 3,000-square-meter sculpture park and a 4,100-square-meter modern collection storeroom lie next to the building.

The museum has collected over 110,000 works of art in different categories spanning from antiquity to modern times. Apart from fine art masterpieces by acclaimed Chinese artists active in many periods of history, constituting a complete landscape of the history of fine art in China, the museum also includes various foreign art works and lively folk arts. The collection includes works of acclaimed Chinese artists such as Su Shi, Tang Yin, Xu Wei, Ren Bonian, Wu Changshuo, Huang Binhong, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian, the works of calligraphers such as Yu Youren, Gao Ershi, Sha Menghai, Qi gong, the works of sculptors such as Liu Kaiqu, Hua Tianyou, Wang Linyi, Zeng Zhushao, Xiao Chuanjiu, Zhang Chongren, as well as works of foreign artists such as Picasso, Dali, Kollwitz and Ansel Adams.