Yuan Yuan

Date of Award

2024

Document Type

MA Project - Open Access

Project Type

MA Project - Curatorial Proposal

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Art Business

First Advisor

Zhang Gan

Abstract

"The Spirit of Female Modernity" rejoices in the empowering synergy of women and art modernist aesthetics. It focuses mainly on the work of female artists, designers, musicians, and fashion brands that break several epochs and media. The goal is to motivate by illustrating how women in diverse artistic and design fields embraced and, in some cases, reinterpreted the language of modernist art to reflect their period's concept of modernity. This carefully curated exhibition highlights the new and thought-through role that women artists embarked on in helping to shape the history of art through the modernism lens of feminist practice. It provides an engaging exploration of how such figures infused freedom, independence, and invention into their artistic creation and hence opens a provocative new perspective on modernist aesthetics. The exhibition will feature a collaborative display of six female artists. The artworks on display at the archives include architect and furniture designer Florence Knoll Bassett's works, product designer Marianne Brandt, graphic designer Cipe Pineles, musician and composer Ruth Crawford Seeger, contemporary painter Chen Ke, and fashion from the Chinese fashion designer Yang Lin from Yearly Plan brand. Despite the disparity of fields and forms through which these six women expressed themselves as artists, their pioneering contributions to a female modernist aesthetic in their respective times foster a sort of commonality that carries with it a sense of community and purpose. 3 The exhibition space is set in classic modernism-inspired architecture in Shanghai is an interactive experience architecture designed by Yearly Plan brand. The place is designed as an exhibition area but is integrated with retail and a designer showroom by using interactive elements in its space. It invigorates dialogue of the works displayed with their context, therefore inviting the public to a dynamic and interactive acquaintance with the idea of female modernity. Sponsored by Yearly Plan, the exhibition features displays of Florence Knoll Bassett furniture supplied by Knoll Design, Marianne Brandt product designs from Maison Wave Gallery, and Cipe Pineles graphic designs printed by the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. The main exhibition area will replicate the modernism style of 20th Century’s interior decoration, the space will be created using those designers’ 20th Century artworks. The exhibition also features the oil paintings "Bauhaus Gal" series by Chen Ke. This portrait collection is from the spirit of pioneering female artists at the Bauhaus. The series is brought by the Perrotin Gallery and Star Gallery. "Bauhaus Gal" inspired by zeitgeist-charged archive book 'Bauhaus Girls.' Viewers are assured they will get a feel for the much-changing force of Bauhaus women across the decades. Chen Ke's series stands out for its vibrant colors, dynamic compositions, and ability to convey these women's strength and resilience in the face of societal challenges. Each piece is a visual 4 testimony to the undefeatable spirit of these pioneering women, making it a must-see highlight of the exhibition. The fashion and design section introduces the ready-to-wear collection of Yearly Plan, revealing both the elegance of modern minimalism and the practicable beauty that corresponds to modern women's freedom. So, in this part of the exhibition, the viewer will be humbly asked to postulate his or her own reflections about the connections between modernism aesthetics and the practice of sustainable fashion design today. The Exhibition will feature the music of the 20th Century musician Ruth Crawford Seeger. enriched with her musical works as the theme music for the exhibition space, offering an immersive view into the world of female modernist aesthetics, therefore providing a comprehensive view of how women contributed to modernist movements of the 20th Century.

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