New Museum of Art Pudong opens on July 8
A glass hall in the museum.
The Museum of Art Pudong.
The Museum of Art Pudong (MAP) will open to the public on July 8 with exhibitions by Britain's Tate, Spain's Fundació Joan Miró and Chinese fireworks artist Cai Guoqiang.
Looking like a marble-and-glass rectangle from the front, the newly established public art museum at 2777 Binjiang Avenue is the latest work of renowned French architect and Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel.
A 53-meter-long bridge stretches from the second floor and links the museum to the waterfront platform on the east bank of the Huangpu River.
There are two "glass halls," one with a height of 6 meters, the other at 11 meters.
One side is paved with glass, allowing people to enjoy beautiful views of the Bund across the river, and the other side has high-reflective LEDs, mirroring the Bund view. The design echoes with the nearby river, and creates a subtle blend of light, art and image.
A view of the front of the new museum.
Nouvel said the design is meant to blur the distinction between the structure and the environment.
"I hope the museum can naturally, seamlessly integrate into the surroundings, like a serene sculpture rather than an individual building," he said. ""I'm playing a game with the Huangpu River and surrounding spaces."
Xu Erjin, general manager of the museum's investor and operator Lujiazui Group, said the museum was the last piece of the jigsaw of Lujiazui's core waterfront area.
With an investment of over 1.3 billion yuan (US$201 million), it aims to become a world-class museum, in aesthetic taste and level of exhibitions, specializing in international cultural exchanges, Xu said.
On June 2019, the group signed a memorandum of understanding with Tate Britain, one of the most famous art museums with the national collection of British art from 1500 to the present day and international modern and contemporary art.
Tate Britain will offer professional guidance to help MAP become a world-class museum, and hold exhibitions there for three years.
"Light: Works from Tate's Collection" is the first exhibition.
Three exhibitions will open in celebration of the museum's opening.
"Nataraja" by Bridget Riley.
The exhibition, which will run through November 14, will display more than 100 pieces from Tate, including renowned works such as Claude Monet's "The Seine at Port-Villez," John Martin's "The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum" and Sir John Everett Millais' "Ophelia," one of Tate's best-loved paintings.
It will also feature contemporary interventions by artists such as Dan Flavin, James Turrell, Anish Kapoor, Tacita Dean, Olafur Eliasson, Bridget Riley and Yayoi Kusama.
Maria Balshaw, Tate director, said: "Tate has long been engaged with Chinese art and artists and we are delighted to have been able to collaborate closely with our colleagues in Shanghai to prepare for the opening of this important new museum,"
She added: "We hope this exhibition, which includes many of Tate's most prized artworks, will have a significant impact and reach new audiences. As an inaugural project for Museum of Art Pudong, light demonstrates both the strength of the relationship between our organizations and the ambitious approach of the new museum."
Another exhibition opening in the museum is "Joan Miró. Women, Birds, Stars," the first show offered by the Fundació Joan Miró in China and the most important to be held of the artist's work in Asia since 2014. It will last to November 7.
"Woman, bird, star" by Joan Miro.
"Structure" by Cai Guoqiang.
The exhibition will include 69 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints by Spain's renowned artist Joan Miró who defined his unique style by frequently using elements such as women, birds, stars, the moon, the sun, and ladders.
It allows visitors to discover Miró's imagination and his unique language of signs, as well as the way the artist experimented with a variety of techniques and materials and the new life he gave to everyday objects.
Chinese fireworks artist Cai Guoqiang will bring "Cai Guo-Qiang: Odyssey and Homecoming" in celebration of the museum's opening. A highlight will be "Sleepwalking in the Forbidden City," a contemporary artwork combining art installations and virtual reality technology. It will run through March 7, 2022.
"MAP is now talking to some of the world's top museums to seek cooperation. In the future, collections from Muse'e d'Orsay in France and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the US may also be displayed here in Pudong," said Bao Shuyi, vice general manager of Lujiazui Group.
Tickets are available on MAP'S official website and WeChat as well as online ticketing platforms including Maoyan and damai.cn.
