Sneak peek: Shanghai, the catalogue

Readers of this blog are among a select group who can see the catalogue for our upcoming Shanghai exhibition (opening February 2010) in its early stages.

Even as we are proofing color on Emerald Cities, we’re editing and designing Shanghai. As part of this process we created stylized characters for the word Shanghai. The image at right shows them on the half title page (p. i) of the book.

I don’t feel ready to show the cover, and all of this is still tentative and subject to change, but I feel good about the direction the design of this book is going. So I am going to show a few spreads in the hopes you might find them of interest. They also offer some of the first views we have made public of the art that will be included in this exhibition.

The show covers Shanghai art from the mid nineteenth century through the present. Along the way it focuses on four main periods: the Shanghai school of the mid nineteenth century, the deco period from between the world wars, the cultural revolution, and the contemporary period.

Below is what we are thinking of as a second bastard title, although the spread could also be used for end sheets. Here the stylized characters recur. The art is from the early period.

The title spread features a contemporary work.

Here’s the table of contents with its facing page image (which like many of the images actually extends beyond the gutter).

This is an essay opening spread.

Here’s another.

This is an entry in the catalogue section of the book.

And here is a spread from the catalogue section that shows entries for two different objects on facing pages.

If past experience is any guide, much of this is likely to change. Still, this design is looking sharp, and I hope this preview whets your appetite for the final book and the full show it accompanies, opening in February. The museum regards this is a large and important exhibition, and the companion book should be a significant one.