Shanghai Civic Art

After achieving healthy bottom-lines, corporations, institutions and individuals have turned their attention to burnishing their image by sponsoring projects of artistic merit in the public space, augmenting those undertaken by the state. Modest or mega in scale, for self-glorification or out of social consciousness, public art is good for business because it gives back to the community that sustains it in a virtuous circle.

Sundial on Century Avenue en route to the Science & Technology Museum

The writing’s on the wall

Henry Moore inspired chrome-finished statue at Thumb Plaza

Elephant statue on a coiled trunk

Stone slugs and snails at the entrance to Xintiandi Style

Abstract expressionist sculpture near a highway flyover

Female form balancing on a sphere

Fluid metal sculpture outside the Shanghai Library, suggesting perhaps, freeing your mind with books

This statue in a city park pays homage to playwright-poet Tian Han,  who is most celebrated in China for his role in the creation of the Chinese national anthem. It began as the lyrics of a song in his screenplay for the 1935 movie “The Children of Troubled Times” about the Japanese resistance movement. When composer Nie Er read it, he was so aroused by its patriotism that he took the opportunity to set it to music by becoming the soundtrack composer. After its theatrical release the song rose to popularity and critical acclaim, culmination in its adoption by the PRC as the national anthem of China in 1949.   
 

Something growing out of the ground

A swirling mass of steel echoing the spiral ramp up the Nanpu Bridge and towering over the enclosed park.