Making a french connection

Shanghai's first large-scale exhibition from Paris' Centre Pompidou proves to be a challenge for local viewers.

"Majority of them are confused with the art work," says Zhan Hao, an art critic from Shanghai. "They come because they think it is fashionable to walk in front of the art that they can't understand."

The exhibition named Electric Field: Surrealism and Beyond, which is ongoing at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, features 120 works selected from Musee National d'Art Moderne housed in the Centre Pompidou.

Musee National d'Art Moderne is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, consisting of 800,000 pieces from 6,000 artists, and avant-garde surrealism art is one of the museum's greatest treasures.

Zhan says contemporary art works are like crops in the field and to understand the crop, one needs to know the field. And that explains why audiences to the exhibition understand the works by Chinese artists best.

A large installation, Round Table by Chinese artist Chen Zhen, takes the most prominent space in the central exhibition hall. Also on display are works by other Chinese talents including Cai Guoqiang, Wang Du, Huang Yongping, Zhang Huan and Yan Peiming.

Among the foreign works include those by art masters such as Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte and Man Ray.

The exhibition consists of paintings, sculptures, installations, video, photography, and architectural models and scripts.

Electric Field is divided into six parts: Collage, Objects, Night, Automatism, Eros, and Words & Images. Each part is initiated by a series of renowned surrealistic works before extending to contemporary art creation.

Artist Zhang Huan says most of the exhibits are from familiar artists, whose masterpieces have influenced his work.

Pompidou has brought Zhang's work and photo records of the performance named Family Book to be exhibited in its debut exhibition in Shanghai.

"I never expected Pompidou to present this piece in China. Seeing my work in China makes me feel how time has flown by. It has been 12 years (since I did the performance). I've changed a lot.

"It is a great exhibition, with a lot to learn from, but it is not Pompidou's best show.

"Shanghai needs good art museums. The more top museums like Pompidou come to Shanghai, the better it will be for the city's art scene," Zhang says.

The artist had his solo exhibition, The Mountain Is Still a Mountain, in London in July, and is preparing for another solo show in the United States later this year.

Explaining the choice of subject for its debut exhibition in China, Alain Seban, chairman of Centre Pompidou, says Surrealism is an important art movement in the history of modern and contemporary art.

He says the collection of Surrealist art at Pompidou has been one of the best in the world, attracting artists and art lovers from all over the world. The subject has also enjoyed popularity with audiences from China.

Surrealism emerged in Europe from the 1920s. It brought forward a series of questions about the methodology, material and process of art creation.

Didier Ottinger, curator of the exhibition, says the movement has had enduring influence in the history of modern art until today.

"It opened a new path for modern art development, and the show focuses not only on the art movement, but more importantly, what's beyond," Ottinger says.

He suggests audiences view the exhibition in the context of modern art.

"Keep reading and exploring the art history, and you will understand it better," he says.

The venue of the exhibition, Power Station of Art, opened to the public on Oct 1, as part of the Expo park during the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

The museum space was refurbished from a power plant dating to the late 1800s, and that's how it got its name. It is the first State-owned museum of contemporary art in Shanghai.

According to Li Xiangyang, the executive director of Power Station of Art, the museum has received more than 120,000 visitors since its opening.