Museum of Art Pudong offers a peek at two upcoming exhibitions

The Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai provided a glimpse of its two upcoming exhibitions of The Wonders of Patterns: Masterpieces from India, Iran and the Ottoman World, the first large-scale showcase of the French Louvre Museum, and Picasso Through the Eyes of Paul Smith in Shanghai on Dec 4.

The Louvre Museum exhibition, opening on Dec 13, will feature about 300 treasured artifacts selected from the vast collection of more than 20,000 pieces of the Islamic Art Department of the museum. It will offer a broad perspective spanning from the 16th to the 19th century. The exhibition has been curated exclusively for the museum in Shanghai, with exhibits encompassing a wide range of media, including ceramics, jewelry, jade, glass, carpet, painting, and sculpture, among others.

Judith Henon, deputy director of the Louvre's department of Islamic Art and curator of the exhibition, said the exhibition not only showcases the flourishing of pattern aesthetics but also bears witness to the dynamic process through which different cultures and arts absorb, collide, and reorganize each other while in motion. Many of the exhibits are being shown to the public for the first time since being acquired by the Louvre.

Scenography of The Wonders of Patterns will be designed by Cecile Degos, who was also the designer of the exhibition Paths to Modernity: Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay Paris at the museum.

Picasso Through the Eyes of Paul Smith will open on Dec 22. Held by the museum in collaboration with Musee National Picasso-Paris, the exhibition has been curated by British designer Paul Smith, offering a fresh perspective on the oeuvre of the Spanish master Pablo Picasso.

The museum has also introduced a total of 300 merchandise items designed for the two major exhibitions on Thursday. From heat pads to fridge magnets, notepads and handbags, these goods have been very popular with museum-goers in recent years. While the sales revenue has had little part to cover much of the exhibitions' cost, Li Minkun, chairman of the Museum of Art Pudong, and deputy general manager of Shanghai Lujiazui Group, said the greater significance of these merchandise is that "they expand the value of the exhibition. You can take them home and keep them close in your life, and they remind you of the exhibitions whenever you use them."