Long Museum celebrates 10th anniversary with exhibitions

Ti Gong

"A Leisurely Stroll," an exhibition currently showing at the Long Museum West Bund, renders a glimpse of contemporary art history around the world since the 1970s to visitors.

It is one of a series of exhibitions to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Long Museum this year.

The exhibition features a selection of 168 pieces of global artwork, looking back at contemporary art from the late 1970s to the present, all of which echo their respective times and environments.

"The intention is to show the dynamic relationship between contemporary art in China and the world at large over the past 50 years," said Wang Wei, curator of the exhibition.

Visitors will be thrilled to find work from major names on the international contemporary art stage such as Yayoi Kusama, Stanley Whitney, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Yoshitomo Nara.

"When we have the opportunity to juxtapose artists from around the world, we can observe that artists from different cultures and regions may have had very different narratives about art during the same period," Wang said. "But when we stretch the historical timeline we are viewing and look at these works from a broader spatial and temporal perspective, the intertwining of cultures and mutual influences build a historical picture in this exhibition with the artists at its core."

The exhibition also reveals the efforts and devotion of couple Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei, who founded the Long Museum, over the past several decades, as all the works on display are from their private collection.

In addition to works from overseas artists, the couple's focus on China's contemporary art is impressive, containing most of the critical names that emerged in China's contemporary art history including Li Shan, Yu Youhan, Liu Wei and Liu Ye.

Ti Gong

"Grand Tour and Long Ballad," a calligraphy exhibition of work by Mo Yan and Wang Zhen is also underway at the museum through July 16.

It features 79 pieces or groups of calligraphy written by Mo and Wang since 2019.

Mo, the first Chinese author to win a Nobel Laureate in Literature in 2012, seems to have slowed down his pace and put more efforts to the writing of poems and calligraphy in recent years.

It all began from a journey in 2019. Mo and Wang, president of the Beijing Shutong Cultural and Art Research Association, went to Japan especially for the exhibition of "Draft of a Requirement to My Nephew" by Yan Zhenqing, a renowned Chinese calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). Throughout the next three years, they traveled extensively through northeast China, central China, Shandong Province and Beijing, and created many classical-style poems and calligraphy works.

To the Chinese literati, calligraphy is considered a way to express both their minds and emotions.

Ti Gong

Grand Tour and Long Ballad"

Date: Through July 16 (closed on Mondays), 10am-5:30pm

"A Leisurely Stroll"

Date: Through August 13 (closed on Mondays), 10am-5:30pm

Venue: Long Museum West Bund

Address: 3398 Longteng Ave

龙腾大道3398号