| |

Shanghai Museum

ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 44

Shanghai

The Shanghai Museum is one of several significant institutions within The People’s Park in downtown Shanghai. It contains an insanely sumptuous collection. No material escapes the expressive form and skill displayed by the Chinese and Tibetan people at the highest level of expertise: cloth, bead, wood, jade, gilt-brass, ink, paint, paper, ceramic, stone, bronze. The few samples here do not include items that are difficult to photograph through glass, such as stone seal carvings.

ABOVE: Batik sleeve attachments, Bouyei, Zhenning, Guizhou, 2nd half of the 20th century

Shanghai Museum
Shanghai Museum

costumes of diverse ethnic regions of China

Shanghai Museum
Shanghai Museum

Gilt-brass figurine of Ushnishavijaya, Tibetan, Qing (1644–1911)

Shanghai Museum

Gilt-brass figurine of vajra protector, Tibetan, Qing (1644–1911)

Shanghai Museum

wooden Tujia masks for Nuo opera

Shanghai Museum
Shanghai Museum

Jade ornaments on funerary face covering popular in the Zhou dynasty. The jade pieces were stitched on the funerary face covering cloth, a forerunner of the jade clothes of the Han dynasty.

Shanghai Museum

an artist’s room

Shanghai Museum

Incense stand with five inward-turning legs, Huanghuali Wood, Ming Dynasty (1368–1644)

Shanghai Museum

Shanghai Museum

Sight-seeing of Autumn Mountain, by Wen Boren, (1502–1575), handscroll, Ming dynasty, painted in 1566, detail

Shanghai Museum

Mountains Girdled with White Clouds, Fang Congyi, (ca. 1302–1393), handscroll, Yuan dynasty

Shanghai Museum

Shanghai Museum

stone Buddha carving

Shanghai Museum

Jia (wine vessel), with a row of bead pattern, Late Xia (18th–16th century B.C.)

Shanghai Museum

Drum stand with openwork coiled dragon design, Late Spring and Autumn dynasty (early 6th century–476 B.C.)

Shanghai Museum

Gilt bronze censer with openwork interlaced dragon pattern, Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 220)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

To see all blog posts in this topic, select tab above marked TRAVELS > CHINA.

 

Save

Similar Posts

  • | |

    Palace Museum Side Halls

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 16 It is called Forbidden City because it was forbidden to enter or leave without the emperor’s permission. It was the central seat of political and ceremonial power in China for 500 years, 1406—1912. The central axis is comprised of a series of throne rooms and vast courtyards. On either side are warrens of intimately scaled private rooms, kitchens, apartments, and chapels. Some halls are now museums containing extraordinary…

  • | |

    Shanghai Tower

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 35 Three days after arrival, following an unexpected bus trip to Hangzhou, I was finally able to see Shanghai. My colleague Wang assigned a new chaperone to me from his student pool. Mr Li’s daughter Jaiyi met me at my hotel lobby where we coordinated our plan for the day: her list, my list, and Wang’s list. First on his list was the Museum of Contemporary Art, located in…

  • | |

    Temple of Heaven Park

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 13 Tiāntán — Temple of Heaven — is a historic religious site within a 660 acre urban park. Especially in the early hours of the day people gather there to play games, dance, practice tai chi, and perform music. There are two large, well-tended flower gardens, one of roses, the other of peonies. Long wide walkways through manicured forests lead to scruffier cedar forests near the south gate. singing…

  • | |

    CAA Exhibitions

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHEJIANG, no. 30 The China Academy of Art thesis exhibitions are extensive. The school provides rigorous instruction in a full spectrum of degree programs on three campuses. The school was founded in 1928 as the first art university and first graduate school in Chinese history. CAA is under the direct management of the Ministry of Culture. Despite the large quantity of work we viewed in a three hour visit, it was…

  • | |

    River Towns

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHOUZHUANG, no. 39 On the second to last day in Shanghai, Wang arranged for me to join a student bus trip to Zhouzhuang, ninety minutes west of Shanghai. Blurry photographs taken through the bus window were washed out even more by the overcast day. In small corners of the images the camera caught people working — on rivers, in fields, and laying tile. They appeared to have stepped directly from the Qingming scroll…

  • | |

    Shanghai Old City

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 45 The area within the original city wall of Shanghai remained exclusively Chinese during the period of foreign concessions that followed the defeat of the Qing dynasty by the British Empire in 1839. Unfortunately most of the old city has been replaced by a new city that pretends to be old — in a completely artificial way. It is a commercial development designed to accommodate hordes of tourists. Beyond…