Blossoms in Shanghai: The Long Museum's Tenth Anniversary Exhibition

I visited Shanghai in June 2024. While most visitors there were captivated by the buzz of Wong Kar-wai’s acclaimed TV drama Shanghai Blossom, I sought a quieter kind of beauty. 

Nestled in the serene West Bund district is the Long Museum, a private museum founded by collectors Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei, offering a peaceful escape from the city’s hustle and bustle.

There is something profoundly human about our desire to capture the fleeting beauty of a flower in bloom. From ancient Chinese ink paintings on silk to vibrant Western oil canvases, artists throughout time and cultures have endeavoured to preserve that fragile moment. Even now, centuries later, we can still feel their emotion and intention, which is a testament to art’s unique power to connect us.

The exhibition begins with bold contemporary interpretations: Zhou Chunya’s vivid Peach Blossoms, Jonas Wood’s Green and Purple Orchid 2, a painting from Kerry James Marshall’s Black and part Black Birds in America series, and Takashi Murakami’s Rainbow Flower - 11 O'Clock.

Exhibition Details
Title: Blossom: The Tenth Anniversary of the Long Museum
Venue: Long Museum (West Bund)
Address: 3398 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui District, Shanghai
Tickets: 260 RMB for full museum pass (During 29 August – 20 October, 2024)
Website: http://www.thelongmuseum.org/

The building itself is a work of art, featuring striking 'umbrella-vault' architecture and raw concrete surfaces. On the drizzly day of my visit, the soft grey light imbued the space with a soothing, almost poetic atmosphere.

I was there for the museum’s 10th-anniversary exhibition, 'Blossom: The Tenth Anniversary of the Long Museum,' which runs until 4 August. This remarkable show brings together over 200 works by more than 150 artists, spanning ten centuries and exploring the enduring theme of flowers in art—across both Eastern and Western traditions.

As I made my way downstairs, the focus shifted to classical Chinese art. A standout piece is Jiang Tingxi’s Album of One Hundred Species of Peony Figure, once part of the Qing imperial collection and later housed in the Palace Museum. Created for Emperor Yongzheng, this exquisite work pairs paintings of peonies with poems describing their colours and characteristics. He first composed the poem A Hundred Poems on Peonies, highlighting the colours and traits of each variety before formally painting them. It is where poetry and painting harmoniously reflect one another. This masterpiece fetched RMB 173 million at auction in 2016. It has since then found its home at the Long Museum.

Also on display is a delicate set of Twelve Flower Month Cups from the Kangxi era. Each cup beautifully depicts the flower of a lunar month, accompanied by a corresponding poem and seal, embodying the refined elegance of Qing dynasty scholars.