Is there a difference between modern and contemporary art? If so, what is it? Is modernist art a construct of western art history? How about in eastern art? How, when, and where did the notion of modernist art begin in Asia?

Join Julie Chun, Art Historian and Adjunct Professor of Art History, who has spent over a decade researching the topic of modern art in Asia. At an off-beat history museum, which even the local Shanghainese know little about, she will provide the historical context for understanding how art in China took a radical shift towards modernism in our very own city of Shanghai. The site of the Tushanwan Museum was formerly an orphanage and a craft school for destitute young Chinese boys that served a crucial social and artistic need during a time of social upheaval, yet ironically poised for commercial prosperity. By incorporating the evidence of recent scholarship…