Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, History of Art

This dissertation focuses on exhibition venues, a topic normally treated as minor historical information in art historical studies. It examines exhibition spaces and everyday exhibition practices in Republican China (1912-1949) through a case study of the Daxin Gallery, the first art gallery in Shanghai. Located on the fourth floor of the Daxin Department Store (The Sun Company), this gallery was at the center of Shanghai's commercial culture on Nanjing Road, in the city's International Settlement. From its opening in 1936 to its closing in 1950, it was one of Shanghai's most popular art venues, hosting about 340 exhibitions featuring all types of art, from ink painting to oil painting to photography and manhua. The gallery offered a platform for prominent painters like Liu Haisu (1896-1994) and helped numerous fledgling artists promote their art and explore new exhibition practices. With its active role during prewar (1936-37) and wartime years (1937-49), the gallery demonstrates that the commercial culture in Shanghai was not a mere background against which the art world prospered. Instead, the commercial space was an active agent playing a major role in the creation, perception, and circulation of art. By taking a spatial approach, this dissertation broadens our understanding of modern Chinese art history as a part of the symbiotic whole of the urban landscape and urban culture. It starts by mapping exhibition culture in Shanghai and then examines the history of the Daxin Gallery. By focusing on the previously ignored question of exhibition spaces, it draws attention to the connection between exhibitions and the urban landscape and brings out details of how artists found public spaces for exhibition. Likewise, by considering a department store gallery's role in the art world, it explores the liberalizing role that the consumer culture associated with the space played in the production and reception of art.

Committee: Julia Andrews (Advisor) Subjects: Art History; Asian Studies; History