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WHERE AESTHETICS KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES

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THE ART

Exhibition


Same Clay, Two Worlds: The Past and Present of Pottery and Porcelain
On the third floor of the Shanghai Museum's East Building, there is an exhibition hall worth a special visit—the Ancient Chinese Ceramics Gallery. The exhibition unfolds along a timeline, from the first lump of clay shaped by prehistoric hands to the gossamer-thin glazed wares crafted by Qing Dynasty artisans. Each of these objects encapsulates thousands of years of civilizational warmth. After walking through the gallery, many visitors find a quiet question forming in their

Cathy Shen
1 day ago7 min read


Chinese Painting Doesn't Speak Loudly—The Restrained Beauty of Classical Chinese Art
A few days ago, a friend and I fell into an intriguing conversation: if you had to describe classical Chinese painting in just three adjectives, which would you choose? The question may appear straightforward, yet responding to it elicits hesitation—the intricacy of Chinese painting surpasses the confines of just three adjectives. We talked for a long time, our answers each emphasizing different things, but there was one word I knew from the very start I would use: restrained

Cathy Shen
3 days ago7 min read


Shanghai Museum East Hall
The Shanghai Museum East Hall (abbreviated as "SMEH") is positioned as a museum of ancient Chinese art. Located at No. 1952 Century Avenue, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, covers a land area of approximately 46,000 square meters and has a total floor area of 113,200 square meters. The building comprises six above-ground floors and two below-ground floors. The total exhibition and display area spans approximately 33,600 square meters, housing 20 galleries and interactive experience

Cathy Shen
5 days ago2 min read


The Truth of Color: Why the Dominant Hues of Classical Oil Paintings Are Low in Saturation, Yet the Originals Take Your Breath Away
A Paradox Begins Recently I ran an experiment using an algorithm to extract the dominant hues from digital images of various classical oil paintings. To my surprise, whether it was Jan van Huysum's still-life flowers, Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, Monet’s Water Lilies, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, or Piero della Francesca’s Spring, the four to six most concentrated dominant colors extracted were invariably low-saturation hues, differing mainly in brightness. The colors that appe

Cathy Shen
6 days ago8 min read
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