Facing up to a different look

The avant-garde Fauvism artists, such as Frantisek Kupka and Kees Van Dongen displayed a surprising range of hues. A more recent work that fits the bill is Bruce Nauman's self-portrait in white, pink, green and black.

Chinese artist Huang Yongping's Mona-Vinci is one of the first artworks visitors come across in the second section titled Disfiguring?

Inspired by the academic assumption that Mona Lisa was created as a self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, Huang combined the two images into one picture, and placed a light box on the side to display the magazine cover picture that gave him the idea.

A pioneer in China's contemporary art scene, Huang questions the division between the East and the West as seen in traditional art history books by placing these books in a laundry machine and displaying the resulting paper pulp.

Huang later moved to Paris, where he embarked on a productive and often controversial artistic career until his death in 2019. Visitors will then find more creations by Chinese artists, including Zhang Xiaogang's 1999 painting Father and Daughter No 1, and Chang Shuhong's portrait for his beloved daughter Shana, which was created in the 1930s when he was studying art in Paris. Chang later returned to China and devoted his life to the protection of the artistic heritage in Dunhuang, Gansu province. His daughter also turned out to be an important designer and art educator in China.

Visitors will also get to see portraits of prominent figures, such as composer Arnold Schoenberg and novelist James Joyce, the death mask of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, as well as pictures of anonymous people who are often at the very bottom of the social ladder.

In this exhibition, the artists gave them the same amount of attention as the others based on the belief that everyone, whether common people or celebrities, are entitled to a portrait.

If you go

Mirrors of the Portrait

July 21-Nov 5, 2024, 10 am-5 pm (last admission at 4:30 pm), Tuesday-Sunday.

West Bund Museum, Gallery 1 and 2.

2600 Longteng Avenue,

Xuhui district, Shanghai.