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Shanghai Nights

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Endless Summer serie · by vonMoerenburgh

Shanghai Nights

Original digital-to-physical · Aluminium panel, UV ink, crystal glass pigments, high-gloss automotive clear coat

$6,100

Shanghai appears twice in this collection. Warren Lee is one man on one corner on one specific night, a stranger given a name. Shanghai Nights is the other Shanghai: the spirit of the city embodied in a figure, in the visual language the city invented for itself a century ago. The yuèfèn pái tradition placed women against bold flat colour and made an argument about cosmopolitan Chinese modernity. The crystal glass pigments hold the hot pink and yellow in the surface. In the evening the colours advance. The city arrives in the room.

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Details

Dimensions

75 × 100 × 2 cm

Weight

2 kg

Subject matter

Female figure against color-blocked backdrop in the visual language of Shanghai's yuèfèn pái poster tradition, hot pink, yellow, deep blue, and cream

Medium

Aluminium panel, UV ink, crystal glass pigments, high-gloss automotive clear coat

Suited for

BedroomLiving roomOfficeHallway
Fire rated: D-s2,d0Commercial license

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From the studio

“Emmy, a Dutch friend of a friend who lives in Shanghai as a photographer, showed us around the French Concession on the first day. The old lanes, the plane trees, the shopfronts. On one of them, a woman in a poster: bold flat colour, the figure against the background, the palette of the city at night. I was living in Pudong, the High Tech Park, corporate towers, tech corridors, the most modern district in a city that holds its history at every turn. That poster was still in the room with me. Shanghai Nights is what came out of holding both at once: the oldest visual language the city made for itself, the newest materials available to make it again. The tradition and the modernity were not in tension. They were in the same room.”

vonMoerenburgh

Living with this work

The crystal glass pigments shift the hot pink and yellow registers most noticeably under warm lamp light in the evening, which is when the work is most itself: the nocturnal palette advancing at the nocturnal hour. During the day the deep blue holds the composition and the work reads as graphic and cool. In the evening the pink and yellow come forward and the figure emerges from the colour field rather than sitting in front of it. Shanghai at night, in the room.

Where it lives

Room by room: where this work thrives, where it struggles, and exactly where to hang it.

Room fit

The flat color-block composition and the vivid palette mean this work reads completely from across a room without requiring close inspection. Position at 145 cm to center on a white or neutral wall with one to two meters of clear viewing distance. The hot pink and yellow registers advance under warm artificial light, which makes this a strong evening piece for rooms used after dark. Natural morning light gives the cooler, more graphic reading with the deep blue dominant. Avoid placing against a coloured wall that competes with the pink or yellow fields.

Strong fit

The nocturnal palette and the evening reading make this a strong bedroom piece. The hot pink and yellow advance under warm lamp light at exactly the hour the work was made for. Position at 145 cm to center on a white or neutral wall. Morning natural light gives the cooler, more graphic reading. Avoid placing against a warm-toned wall that merges with the pink or yellow fields.

Work size75 x 100 cm
Hang height (center)145 cm
Wall coverageFeature wall anchor
Ideal viewing distance1.5 - 3 m

About the artist

V

vonMoerenburgh

The Hague, The Netherlands

48,000 miles. Panama to New Zealand, Brazil to Hawaii. vonMoerenburgh was crossing the Pacific, then crossing it again, from a different angle. The ocean kept finding him. Eventually, he stopped leaving.

He came to art late. Thirty years in design, gaming, and publishing, then at 49, he started making art. The work is built on a digital foundation, finished by hand with crystal glass pigments that shift with the light. The same surface reads differently depending on where you stand and what the light is doing.

He always meant to go to art school. This is what happened instead.

www.vuvu.nl@joostvonm@vonmoerenburgh