Jennifer says...: Electric Fields: Surrealism and Beyond @ Centre Pompidou at the Shanghai Power Station of Art

The Power Station of Art in Shanghai is one of the most impressive art spaces I have ever been to. The museum, which opened last October, is China’s first state-run contemporary art institution on the mainland. It took the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee just nine months to convert the Nanshi Power Plant site into the Power Station of Art, at a cost of RMB 400million (roughly £40m). Occupying the top floor of the seven-storey complex is the Centre Pompidou organized exhibit Electric Fields: Surrealism and Beyond (until 15^th March).

I was lucky enough to be invited to the preview of the show. The event was really fabulous and the monumental scale of the show itself was reflected in the swankiness of the party that celebrated it. Rows and rows of suited and booted waiters, just dying to feed me canapés and wine… what a great accompaniment to the fabulous art!

Erró (Gudmundur Gudmundsson), Pour Pol Pot (TuolSleng S.21) <For Pol Pot (TuolSleng S.21)>, 1993, Glycerophtralic paint on canvas, 300 x 600 cm

Erró (Gudmundur Gudmundsson), Les Origines de Pollock <The Background of Pollock>, 1966-67, Acrylic on canvas, 260 x 200cm

Gérard Fromanger, En Chine, à Hu-Xian, August 1974, Oil on canvas, 200 x 300 cm

Huang Yong Ping, Mona-Vinci, 1986-1987, Oil on canvas cut, wood, metal, glass, paper, lightbulb, Canvas 165 x 126 cm, Lightbox 33 x 28 x 13 cm

Benjamin Vautier, Mourir c’est facile, 1979, Acrylic on canvas, 162.2 x 130 cm

The show comprised of 119 works loaned from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the prestigious collection did not disappoint! The Chen Zhen installation Round Table, 1995, shows a large scale table that incorporates a United Nations human rights declaration in a plaque in the middle. Quite a provocative statement in a country where human rights is a hot, and terribly sensitive, subject.

Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent, Chromogenic colour print, 197 x 327 cm (without margins)

Pablo Picasso, Femme couchée sur un divan bleu, 20^th April 1960, Oil on canvas, 85 x 115.5 cm

David Salle, Blue Paper, 1986, Acrylic paint, fluorescent vinyl paint and oil on canvas, 274 x 442 cm

Vladimir Dubossarsky and Alexander A. E. Vinogradov, Le déjeuner sur l’herbe, 2002, Oil on canvas, 300 x 500 cm

George Baselitz, Die Madchen von Olmo II, 1981, Oil on canvas, 250 x 249 cm

Philip Guston (Philip Goldstein), In Bed, 1971, Oil on canvas, 128 x 292 cm

There were other big-name artists to draw in the crowds too. From Magritte to Picasso, Ed Ruscha to Andreas Gursky, a lot of the works exhibited were familiar works that aren’t too challenging. When considering the Shanghai art scene and the tendencies for shows to be very avant-garde and provocative, Electric Fields was an incredibly enjoyable show.