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Qipao, 1930s. Silk georgette and silk cut-velvet. Collection of the Shanghai History Museum.
Vanity and stool, 1920-1935. Hardwood and glass. Private collection.
Rug, 1920-1935. Wool with yin and yang pattern. Private collection.
Shanghai Lily, 2009. By Zhou Tiehai (b. 1966). Acrylic (airbrush) on canvas. Courtesy of the artist.
Round table and four chairs, 1920-1935. Hardwood. Private collection.
A Prosperous City That Never Sleeps, 1930s. By Yuan Xiutang (dates unknown). Chromolithograph on paper. Collection of the Shanghai History Museum.
A pair of armchairs, 1920-1935. Hardwood, burl, and fabric. Private collection.
Mawangdui, 2009 (detail). By Liu Dahong (b. 1962). Embroidered silk, one of two pieces. Collection of the artist.
Shanghai
Feb. 12 - Sept. 5
Perhaps no modern city is more imbued with exoticism than Shanghai: in the past, a potent symbol of imperialism and Art Deco, more recently a shining city of global capitalism and modern Orientalism. Here, in the sister city of the Chinese megalopolis, more than 130 artworks including paintings, furniture and rugs, movie clips, revolutionary posters, and contemporary video and art installations, trace 160 years of that complicated history.
Divided into four broad eras — Beginnings (1850-1911), High Times (1912-1949), Revolution (1920-1976), and Shangai Today (1980-present) — the exhibition revisits the city's rise from a modest regional center in eastern China to its prominence as a strategically-placed port city, positioned roughly halfway between Peking and Hong Kong. It ends with a look at its powerhouse position of today: a skyscraper-filled financial capital, one of the largest cities in the world. In fact, the exhibit is timed to coincide with the selection of Shanghai as host of the World Expo this May.
The exhibition's impact rests solidly in the middle, the 1920s, '30s and '40s. This golden age is depicted in objects that range from a pair of curving bentwood Deco armchairs, still aswirl in tangerine and fuschia, to a vivid Maoist woodcut print that cries "Roar, China!" The glamour that we've come to associate with this era is exemplified in the five silk qipao on display, the form-fitting shantung dresses that came into being just as Shanghai's film industry reached its height. A once cool and sultry, simple and sumptuous, they're the very essence of Shanghai.
Posted by JoAnn Greco
For more information, please visit:Asian Art Museum
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