Curated by Nikita Yingqian Cai

Among the few female painters of the Republican era in China, Pan Yuliang (1895–1977) may be the most well known. Her captivating life story, fraught with controversy and intrigue, has been told and retold in various movies, TV dramas, and novels. Yet her artistic legacy and its position in the broader project of China’s modernization remain largely unexplored. The two-part survey “A Portrait of Pan Yuliang”—split between a research platform hosted by Villa Vassilieff in Paris from May 20 to June 24 and an exhibition at Guangdong Times Museum—will be a welcome corrective. The show, which combines extensive archival research with a polyphonic series of field trips, publications, and conversations, promises to tease out resonances between the artist’s practice and contemporary discourses on art, gender, and nation building. 

— Du Keke