The Suzhou Art Museum, which was founded by Mr. Yan Wenliang in 1927 beside the Garden of Surging Wave Pavilion, is known as “the first museum in the history of Chinese art”.
In 2010, the museum was rebuilt on the north section of Renmin Road, a main road in Suzhou ancient city, with the old building beside the Garden of Surging Wave Pavilion transformed into the Yan Wenliang Memorial Hall. With a total floor area of 33,400 square meters, the new museum has one large exhibition hall on the first floor with an area of 800 square meters and six small and medium-sized exhibition halls with an area of 200 to 500 square meters. It also has a multifunctional hall and a warehouse with constant temperature and humidity. The Suzhou Art Museum houses more than 3,000 artworks, featuring a variety of art forms such as Chinese painting, oil painting, watercolor, pastel, printmaking, sculpture, and photography.
In recent years, the Suzhou Art Museum has held a series of exhibitions, such as the Ieoh Ming Pei Documents Exhibition, the Yan Wenliang Documents Exhibition, exhibitions of Chinese oil paintings, and Jiangnan-themed exhibitions.
