Exhibition opens dialogue highlighting the two countries' nourishing artistic exchanges

A dialogue between fine jewelry and ancient Chinese culture is taking place at the exhibition Cartier, the Power of Magic at Shanghai Museum East from Nov 6 to Feb 17.

The exhibition features 202 exquisite pieces from the Cartier Collection including jewelry, watches and 96 archival documents along with 34 Chinese cultural relics selected from the Shanghai Museum collection, and borrowed from nine other institutions around China to create a profound dialogue that spans six sections.

This is also the first time the Shanghai Museum has involved artificial intelligence in the scenography design of an exhibition, which was created by the AI team led by contemporary Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang.

Twenty years ago, the French brand and the Shanghai Museum first collaborated to present the exhibition Cartier at its venue in the People's Square.

"That exhibition is still widely remembered and praised by the public because it was among the earliest of its type on the Chinese mainland that audiences could appreciate a lot of fine jewelry from abroad. It made Cartier a household name in China," says Chu Xiaobo, director of the Shanghai Museum.

The ongoing exhibition has "gone beyond just a regular jewelry show", Chu says, "because, in the curatorial work, we are more aware of our cultural heritage and manage to reflect its influence".

"I believe many visitors will find that Chinese culture has somehow nourished Cartier, or maybe Cartier's philosophy of transcending jewelry artistry to create timeless works of art closely mirrors the enduring values of ancient Chinese art with subtlety and profound harmony," he says.

Thirty-four sets of Chinese artworks are on display at this exhibition along with jewelry pieces. Visitors will find Cartier tiaras made in the early 1900s on display alongside a Chinese gold crown with gems dating from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), and the brand's signature panther brooch sitting by a pair of gold and silver inlaid bronze panther weights also from the Han Dynasty.

They will also find Chinese patterns, materials and decorative methods, such as mother-of-pearl-inlaid lacquers, utilized by the brand to create a variety of art pieces.

The AI team led by Cai reconstructed a landscape painting by Ni Zan (1301-74) and combined it with Chinese garden line drawings to create the scenography. The design has "taken Chinese aesthetics to the extreme", Chu says.

Ni is one of the four great master painters of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). He was from today's Wuxi in Jiangsu province and lived a reclusive life by Taihu Lake. His landscape paintings often featured minimal compositions, leaving large blank areas on the paper that usually depict a few slim trees, mountains from afar, or a rustic hut with no human presence.

At the opening ceremony on Nov 4, Cai recalled his college years studying stage design at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, when he used to go to the Shanghai Museum and see the paintings. "I especially admired the spirit of Ni Zan and considered him my soul mate," he says.

The 67-year-old artist from Quanzhou in Fujian province has worked with a broad range of mediums and is best known internationally for his works involving fireworks and gunpowder, as "its unpredictability and uncontrollability have kept me from ever growing tired of it", says the artist. It is his fascination with the unforeseeable that led to his research in artificial intelligence in 2017.

He proposed to have his AI "doppelganger" participate in the design of the exhibition, to "convey a sense of contemporaneity, romance and liberty through new AI technology".

"I think the result is outstanding, very promising, and will be a subject of interest for the entire world," says Pierre Rainero, director of the French company's Image, Style and Heritage.

As part of the celebration for the 60 years of diplomatic relations between China and France, the exhibition also highlights the cultural bond between the two countries through the eyes of the brand, Rainero says.

The exhibition reflects how Chinese culture is one of the influences in the creation of new shapes and new forms of beauty, and how materials used in Chinese jewelry were used by a French jeweler, and offered to Western consumers.

Chu Xin, deputy director of the exhibition department of the Shanghai Museum, cites the lines of French poet and artist Jean Cocteau who praised Cartier as "that subtle magician who captures fragments of the moon on a thread of sun", and introduces the first piece featured at the exhibition, the Academician's Sword, which Cocteau participated in designing.

Louis-Francois Cartier founded the family company in 1847 and by the dedication and artistic innovation of several generations, it developed a distinctive, bold style rooted in the belief that inspiration for jewelry design should come from everything beyond jewelry itself, Chu Xin says.

If you go

Cartier, the Power of Magic

Reservation required.

Open: Nov 6–Feb 17, 2025, 10 am–6 pm (last entry by 5 pm), closed on Tuesdays.

Venue: Shanghai Museum East, Bright Dairy & Food Exhibition Gallery 1

Location: No 1952 Century Avenue, Pudong New Area