Art scene rebounds as venues open their doors to a grateful and enthusiastic public, reports Zhang Kun.
Shanghai Museum welcomes the first batch of visitors on July 1 after its reopening. The ongoing exhibition Treasures of Prosperity will run to Jan 8, featuring 195 objects that were donated to the museum. (GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY)
Theaters and museums in Shanghai are busy holding events after reopening their doors to the public following the latest COVID-19 outbreak that resulted in a citywide lockdown.
Local authorities gave museums and galleries, as well as tourism venues, the green light to reopen on July 1. At present, 25 art galleries and 29 museums have reopened, said Jin Lei, deputy director of the city's culture and tourism administration, at a news conference on Wednesday.
Many of the city's residents have jumped at the opportunity to visit their favorite venues. At Shanghai Museum, for example, a long line of visitors formed on that morning.
"I was looking forward to visiting the museum after the outbreak," says a woman surnamed Yu, who was the first visitor to enter the venues. "I'm happy just to see whatever they have on exhibition."
Shanghai Museum welcomes the first batch of visitors on July 1 after its reopening. The ongoing exhibition Treasures of Prosperity will run to Jan 8, featuring 195 objects that were donated to the museum. (GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY)
Exhibitions galore
The director of Shanghai Museum Yang Zhigang says the exhibition Treasures of Prosperity, which ran for just a few hours on March 10 because the museum had to be closed later that day due to the outbreak, is back on show and will run to Jan 8. The exhibition features 195 objects that were donated to the Shanghai Museum.
Two new exhibitions will also be held in the museum this month. The first is Thalassa, which will feature ancient Greek art, and the other is about historical society in Henan province. The artworks for Thalassa, which are from Greece, will be the first bunch to enter the city from overseas since the latest outbreak, according to Shanghai Customs.
At Meet You Museum in Jing'an district, a Pablo Picasso exhibition consisting of four oil paintings, 142 prints, 46 ceramic objects and nine photographs by American photographer Robert Capa is currently underway.
"These artworks, from an unfinished school-age painting to a self-portrait Picasso did at 86, reflect the different aspects of his portfolio and document his artistic development," says Wang Chunchen, curator of the exhibition and also a professor with the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
"Outstanding international art exhibitions are an indispensable part of the economy, because people in China need more access to good art, and a large number of new art museums, especially private museums in China need quality exhibits," he adds.
Shanghai Museum welcomes the first batch of visitors on July 1 after its reopening. The ongoing exhibition Treasures of Prosperity will run to Jan 8, featuring 195 objects that were donated to the museum. (GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY)
Picasso has proved to be especially popular with Chinese audiences, as evidenced by the series of exhibitions featuring his works held over the past decade in China. Among the exhibits at this latest showcase are a series of ink illustrations Picasso did for a book on bullfighting.
"The expressions will resonate with Chinese audiences, and we are able to see how a genius like Picasso absorbed artistic vocabulary and made it his own," says Wang.
A jewelry art exhibition titled Van Cleef & Arpels: Time, Nature, Love also kicked off on July 1. The showcase, which runs to Oct 7, features more than 300 jewelry items, watches and other objects.
On Friday, an exhibition of works by Italian artist Giorgio Morandi is held at Jiushi Art Museum at No 27 on the Bund. Across the Huangpu River at Aurora Museum, the collection of the Rockefeller Art Foundation is unveiled on the same day.
The Bund One Art Museum has also announced its itinerary that contains big-name shows such as masterpieces from the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome from Sept 15 to Jan 8 and Uffizi Self-Portrait Masterpieces from Sept 9 to Jan 8.
Visitors scan their health codes and have temperatures checked outside the Shanghai Museum before entering. (GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY)
Concert lineup
Theaters around the city have also sprung back to life.
Shanghai Culture Square, for instance, celebrates its reopening on Friday with Shanghai Ballet's production of The Lady of the Camellias. Reaction to the theater's reopening announcement on June 30 was enthusiastic－all tickets to the shows scheduled for Friday and Saturday were sold out within minutes.
At Shanghai Grand Theater, the highly anticipated Chinese production of Frankenstein will be held from Sept 15 to 25. The show, which was supposed to have its premiere in Shanghai in May, has been staged in Beijing, where it earned widespread acclaim.
Located on the east bank of the Huangpu River, the Shanghai Oriental Art Center has announced that a series of productions will be staged after its reopening on Wednesday. First up is violinist Lyu Siqing, who will perform a recital. Other shows will feature a host of local and international musicians, including conductor Lyu Jia and the orchestra of the National Center for the Performing Arts, Jin Chengzhi and his Rainbow Chamber Singers, jazz-style singer Li Quan and German pianist Gina Alice Redlinger.
Visitors scan their health codes and have temperatures checked outside the Shanghai Museum before entering. (GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY)
To mark its reopening, the Shanghai Concert Hall has scheduled events that are held throughout Friday starting at 10 am. The concert hall also resumes its weekend tours.
On July 24, the Shanghai Concert Hall will join the Shanghai Opera House to premiere the immersive concert production La Traviata, in which artists will sing from the balcony, by the columns in the lobby, and at other locations in the concert hall, rather than on the stage. The concert hall plans to present two of these immersive concerts every month.
In July and August, the concert hall will present the Music Infinity series that showcases experimental music, new media and a blend of sounds of Chinese and Western musical instruments.
From Aug 12 to 14, the Shanghai Concert Hall will host a mini music festival that will have salons and workshops on Bach, as well as concerts featuring Bach-inspired compositions by emerging Chinese artists.
Residents who want to visit these venues should have a green health code and negative nucleic acid test result within 72 hours. Those without smartphones can apply for an offline health code in advance and carry their identification cards.
Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn
