The China Art Museum, Shanghai is housed in the former China Pavilion of the Shanghai World Expo. The architecture of the colossal inverted pyramid-shaped building is inspired by Chinese corbel bracket and ancient bronze sacrificial vessels. Soaring 70 metres into the sky, it covers 166,000 square metres with 64,000 square metres of display area for its collection of some 14,000 masterpieces showcasing modern and contemporary art of China. This is also home to the Animated Scroll, a gigantic multi-media projection of the famed painting “Along the River during Qingming Festival” capturing a day in bustling riverside town Bianjing (modern day Kaifeng) during the Northern Song Dynasty. (Read more in another post on this site).   There are 27 galleries, several of which are devoted to permanent exhibits tracing the history of Chinese modern and contemporary art, masterworks of star painters and sculptors, and 21st century Chinese art. Other halls are used for staging themed events...

The Animated Scroll is located in its own gallery within the China Art Museum in the iconic inverted pyramid-shaped building that was the China Pavilion of the Shanghai World Expo 2010. The Animated Scroll is based on the painting “Along the River during Qingming Festival” depicting the streetscape of Bianjing (modern day Kaifeng) during the Northern Song Dynasty. This painted freeze-frame of the everyday life of the city folk by the Bian River has been animated and projected onto a huge screen, providing a glimpse into a bygone era. It features 814 characters, more than 60 horses, camels, mules, cows, pigs and other animals, 28 boats and 20 vehicles, with lighting changing from day to night every few minutes for heightened dramatic effect.  The original scroll by Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145) measures  529 x 25 cm, and is a national treasure housed in the National Palace Museum, Beijing and on show periodically. Memento copies are available from the gallery store.  Not...