The West Coast Art Museum's "Trilogy of Modern and Contemporary Art History" opens its final chapter, with 300 works featuring two portraits rotated | created | twice

On July 21st, the third round of the permanent exhibition "Portrait Reflection" of the West Coast Art Museum and Pompidou Center's five-year exhibition cooperation project will officially open. This exhibition has collected nearly 300 masterpieces from the Pompidou Center since 1895, covering various categories of works such as painting, sculpture, imaging, and photography. It is also the largest number of works exhibited in the West Coast Museum of Fine Arts in the past four years. This exhibition is also the final chapter of the West Coast Museum of Art's "Trilogy of Modern and Contemporary Art History".

Marshall Reiss, "A Free Form", 1969, Acetate Fiber Plastic, Glass, Projector, Metal, Painted Woodboard

From "Portrait of Man" to "Portrait of Society"

As the name suggests, the "Reflection of Portrait" exhibition will take "Portrait" as a clue, tell the social development process from the late 19th century to the present through portraits of people with different identities, fields, and social statuses, and explore the history of modern and contemporary art development. The exhibits exhibited this time span over a century in terms of creative time, but the exhibition itself does not unfold in a conventional timeline. Instead, it uses 15 thematic chapters to run through the narrative, leading the audience from their understanding of human faces to their insights into life, society, and the times.

The exhibition starts with the theme of "color" and goes through several chapters, including "twisted face", "famous and unknown place of origin", "portraits and artist self portraits/selfies", "masks", "onlookers", "family portraits", "ghosts", "weirdos", "going to the streets", "world women", "paying homage", "mirrors", and "hats off and giving gifts". The imprints of the times can be seen in the creative themes selected by portrait works of different eras, as well as the materials and forms chosen by artists.

The canvas oil painting "Portrait of Ituino" created by Andrei Delan in 1914, the green rust bronze sculpture "Diego Bust" created by Giacometti in 1954, the oil painting "Father and Daughter 1" created by Zhang Xiaogang in 1999, the installation art "Suspect" created by Alan Sasha and Alfred Schunitek, which includes polyester fiber, acrylic paint, sound, and spotlights, as well as the main visual display of this exhibition and the installation work "A Free Form" composed of acetate fiber plastic, glass, projector, metal, and painted wooden boards created by Marshall Rees in 1969, are all related to the artistic expression and era that emerged in the artist's creative era. The waves are inseparable.

"By outlining the various forms of life since the 20th century, 'human portraits' have been further expanded into' social portraits' in the exhibition." The curator of this exhibition, Frederick Paul, expressed the hope that audiences can perceive the social development process over the past century, especially the changes in social relationships, including a re understanding of family, love, friendship, peers, self, and others. ". Therefore, the prototype of the portrait works exhibited in the exhibition includes both well-known "big shots" and ordinary people of unknown origins.

Explore the world's art treasures without leaving the country

As the first art museum institution in China to systematically carry out international cooperation, the permanent exhibition series of the West Coast Art Museum and Pompidou Center's five-year exhibition project focuses on the history of modern and contemporary art. The three permanent exhibitions respectively use the three clues of "time", "objects" and "people" to sort out the development of art and present the "trilogy of modern and contemporary art history" in a simple and concise manner. The museum said that at the beginning of the planning, the "trilogy" adhered to the goal of not sticking to the academic framework of art history, but tried to show the context of the development of the times and issues closely related to contemporary society to a wider audience and crowd with visual culture, while focusing on presenting the essence of the integration of eastern and western cultures.

For this reason, when selecting exhibition works for "Portrait Reflection", the curator includes both works by renowned celebrity artists from ancient times and many works by talented artists who are not well-known to the public. Under the overlap of these two parallel clues, this permanent exhibition also provides audiences with more different viewing dimensions. Among them, the more than 300 works exhibited this time involve multiple dimensions of art history, including color changes, realism and expression, painting and photography, static and dynamic, and also cover multiple contemporary art schools such as Cubism, Surrealism, Fauvism, and Primitive Art.

Many representative works of artists at the textbook level in the 20th century will appear in exhibitions, such as photography by photographers such as Dora Marr using Picasso as a Muse, portraits of Picasso by Valentine Hugo, portraits of James Joyce by Giselle Freud, and portraits of Van Gogh by Francis Bacon.

Some unprecedented portrait works from previous exhibitions have also been presented in Shanghai for the first time, including Huang Yongping's "Mona Finch", Bruce Naumann's "Artistic Makeup" portrait, and Ren é Magritte's bizarre portrait. In addition, theme chapters such as "World Women", "Portraits and Artist Self Paintings/Self portraits", "Photographers", and "Strangers" also provide new viewing perspectives for domestic audiences to appreciate a starry "Portrait Art History" co written by Eastern and Western artists.

This permanent exhibition will continue until November 5, 2024. During the 16 month exhibition period, "Portrait Reflection" will undergo two rotations of works, allowing viewers to enjoy a wide range of portrait art landscapes during the ultra long exhibition period. The West Coast Art Museum will also hold a series of rich forums, public education, and parent-child activities around this theme, allowing domestic audiences to enjoy the world's art treasures at their doorstep without leaving their country.

Portrait Reflection Part of Works:

August Sander, Art Merchant Sam Salz, 1927, Gelatin Silver Salt Impression

Chuck Klose, "Arne", 1999-2000, Oil on canvas

Alexander Calder, "Mask", 1929, Wire

Roger Andre, Anbruis Volar, 1936, Gelatin Silver Salt Impression

Louise Lauler, "Life After 1945", 2006-2015, Vinyl Wallpaper, Multi Size

Alberto Giacometi, "Bust of Diego", 1954, Green Rust Bronze

Alan Saisha, "Suspect", 2000, polyester fiber, acrylic paint, speakers, spotlights, music: Alfred Sunitek, "Christmas Eve"

Huang Yongping, "Mona Finch", 1986-1987, canvas oil painting cutting, wood, metal, glass, paper, light bulb, lightbox