Coverage

Shanghai explores, through the mirror of its art, the tumultuous history that has resulted in one of Asia’s most dynamic and cosmopolitan cities of today. An American poet once wrote that “The artist is the antenna of the race.” For more than a century and half Shanghai artists have not only been documenting the city's many changes but also leading its way into the future. It is impossible to understand one of the world’s most intriguing cities without an awareness of its artists, or to understand its art without an awareness of the city’s history.

The exhibition features more than 130 oil paintings, Shanghai Deco furniture and rugs, revolutionary posters, works of fashion, movie clips, and contemporary installations. These artworks, drawn mainly from the collections of the Shanghai Museum, the Shanghai Art Museum, the Shanghai City History Museum, and the Lu Xun Museum, include the most significant visual documents of the city’s rich and ever-changing culture.

SHANGHAI AUDIO TOURS

The Shanghai audio tour introduces 20 artworks spanning all of the four themes in the exhibition--Beginnings (1850–1912), High Times (1912–1937), Revolution (1920–1976), and Shanghai Today (1980–present). It is narrated by renowned Shanghai-born actress and director, Joan Chen, a star in China from the age of 14, who first became famous in the US for her role in The Last Emperor. The tour features informative interviews with curators Michael Knight, Nancy Berliner, and Dany Chan, and with contemporary Shanghai artist Zhang Jian Jun. Asian Art Museum director Jay Xu, also born in Shanghai, introduces and contributes his comments to one of the stops in the tour.