From painted space to urban space
Curated by Christian Briend, the exhibition occupies two galleries in seven thematic chapters. Cubism reorganizes space; Surrealism takes landscape into dreams; abstraction turns it toward colour and form. Aerial viewpoints and urban scenes extend the subject beyond the view from a path or a window.
François Morellet and Tadashi Kawamata’s joint installation Pier and Ocean (2014) carries the subject into three dimensions. The selection also includes paintings by Georges Braque, Robert Delaunay and André Derain, with Zao Wou-Ki, Cui Jie, Chuang Che and Qiu Xiaofei also represented. Briend connects those different generations through changes in form, viewpoint and the environments artists depict.
A longer exhibition on the river
The scheduled run continues until 18 October 2026, making this a longer collection presentation within the museum’s rotating programme. It draws on the holdings of the Centre Pompidou, whose collaboration with West Bund Museum began when the Shanghai institution opened in 2019.
The Huangpu location provides a clear local setting for an exhibition concerned with natural and urban environments. West Bund’s museum buildings, former industrial structures and riverside public space already occupy a landscape that has changed substantially in recent decades. The exhibition turns that wider subject into specific artistic approaches across more than a century.
Dates and venue
29 April 2025–18 October 2026, Galleries 1 and 2, West Bund Museum / 西岸美术馆, 2600 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui / 徐汇区龙腾大道2600号. The announced ticket is RMB 100. Opening hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11:00–18:00, last admission 17:00; closed Mondays.