Last week witnessed the official opening of the UK National Maritime Museum (NMM)’s ‘Art for the Nation’ exhibition, sponsored by Taiwan’s
Evergreen Group via its charitable arm, the Chang Yung-Fa Foundation. The exhibition brings together for the first time under one roof the Museum’s extensive fine art collection, featuring paintings by great names such as Turner, Hogarth, Gainsborough and
Reynolds, as well as works by the Dutch Van de Velde family. HRH the Prince of Wales was present at the opening ceremony along with an array of VIP guests including Maurice Storey, Honorary Chairman of the Evergreen Group’s UK-based container line Hatsu Marine Limited.
Addressing the gathering at the Museum’s historic Queen’s House in Greenwich, London, Mr Storey spoke about the importance of supporting organisations such as the NMM:
NMM’s major new exhibition, which will run until September 2007, brings together 200 of the Museum’s most significant works for the largest in-depth display of paintings it has ever staged. The display features recent acquisitions and paintings not yet seen by the public.
The exhibition reveals the history of British maritime art, illustrates unfamiliar aspects of the nation’s cultural, social and economic past and traces Britain’s long and defining relationship with the sea. The paintings, some of which date back to the 16th century, have been hung by collection to illustrate genres, schools and tastes.