Shanghai museum’s SHE a timely exploration of women’s art down the ages
Ambitious Long Museum show, featuring works spanning 10 centuries by artists from 13 countries, runs the gamut from Song dynasty calligraphy to Emperor Cixi ink scroll to Tracey Emin
With another woman British prime minister in power and the election of America’s first woman president a distinct possibility, the theme of the “SHE” exhibition in Shanghai – a city known to raise strong women – feels timely.
The cavernous space of the Long Museum features works by 105 woman artists from 13 countries and 10 centuries. The exhibition is billed as the first in China to bring together works by woman artists of such wide geographical and temporal scope.
From the daring to the decorative, “SHE” embraces the complexity of women’s art through the ages. To have Tracey Emin’s neon sign The Last Great Adventure is You (2014) sharing space with Empress Cixi’s poetic blossom ink scroll must be unprecedented.
Wang Wei, the museum’s director and an avid art collector, has taken on the task of curating the exhibition with gusto. To provide some structure to this exploration of female artists, she has divided it into four chapters.
“Self-annihilation” focuses on artists who worked in male-dominated societies which imposed strict limits on women expressing their talents. “Self-liberation” covers the 20th century, when women’s movements developed in the West and the People’s Republic of China was born, with Mao Zedong proclaiming that “women hold up half the sky”.
