Masterpieces of Western art from the 16th to 20th centuries are currently on display at the Powerlong Art Museum in Shanghai.
The exhibition, called 500 Years of Western Paintings – Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, features 60 pieces by famous Western painters, including Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne and Edouard Manet.
All the artworks were selected from the collection of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum which was founded in 1983 by renowned philosopher and poet laureate Daisaku Ikeda.
The works are arranged according to time period and theme, from Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo, to Realism, Impressionism and till Modernism and Postmodernism.
This is the exhibition's second appearance in China, following its first stop at Tsinghua University's Art Museum in Beijing which attracted over 120,000 visitors in a month.
"The exhibition will promote cultural exchange between China and Japan as a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship," said Deng Xiaoxian, vice president and secretary general of the Shanghai International Cultural Association.
[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Gokita Akira, director of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, said that he hopes visitors can learn more about Western art and history through this exhibition.
According to Hirano Kenichi, who hails from the arts and literature department at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, art lovers can look forward to viewing Portrait of a Procurator by Giovanni Bellini and Portrait of Collector by Tintoretto, two famous works from the 16th century.
Visitors will also get to view Smoker by Georges de La Tour, an artwork from the 17th century, also known as the Golden Age of Painting. The piece on show is one of the 40 authentic works in the world.
Art buffs fond of Rococo style paintings from the 18th century will get to view The Triumph of Venus by Francois Boucher, one of the main highlights in the exhibition, Hirano added. Another highlight is the neoclassical masterpiece Great St. Bernard which depicts French general Napoleon.
Other celebrated works, including Dove by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet's Water Lilies and Pierre-Auguste Renoir's collection which illustrates feminine beauty, are also on show.
The exhibition will run till April 30, though some artworks, including Promenade by Edouard Manet and Berthe Morisot's On the Terrace, will only be on display until the end of March.
If you go 500 Years of Western Paintings – Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Date: Jan 12 to Apr 30 Time: 10 am - 6 pm Address: Powerlong Museum, 3055 Caobao Road, Minhang district, Shanghai
