Located on busy
Nanjing Road in
People's Square, Shanghai Art Museum has 12 exhibition halls,
covering more than 5,000 square meters. The building itself is a
charming area to walk around as it used to be the club house of
Shanghai's Race Club built in the 1930's.
It was renovated as a museum in March 2000 and interestingly
during the process some distinctly Chinese features were added to
this British style building. These are the wooden structures which
you can see next to the front gate (Zhu4shi4Ji2gou4 in Chinese).
They're a feature of traditional Chinese architecture in palaces
and temples. The structure is held together through hammering
together wooden joins and not a single piece of metal bolts or
screws are used.
Whilst enjoying the architecture, you can also peruse the
different exhibits that change throughout the year. Nominally the
museum has no set style though there's a bias towards contemporary
Chinese art - which makes an interesting contrast to the faded
grandeur of the colonial era building. It is well worth spending an
afternoon here to gain an insight into Chinese perspectives on
modern art and modern life. Walking around the building will take
around two to three hours depending on how carefully you want to
look at the exhibits.
Unfortunately, for such a large and centrally located museum the
English language support is patchy. Explanations beside the
paintings are brief and not always translated. More problematic is
the fact that exhibition schedules are in Chinese only, and so is
the Website. There is however an audio guide that is in
English.
Address: No. 325, Nanjing Road W. near Huangpi Rd. N.
Tickets: 20 yuan/person, 5 yuan/student
Telephone: 6327-2829
Open Hours: 9am - 4pm
To get there: Metro line 1 or Metro line 2 (People's
Square Station)
(Shanghai Daily July 16, 2007)
