Presenting at the World Congress on Art Deco in Shanghai!

By Jenn | May 25, 2015 |

We have exciting news! (Did the title gave it away?) Our family has been invited to present at the first World Congress on Art Deco to be held in Asia this November! Historic Shanghai will be hosting the event. They are Shanghai’s oldest historic society, founded in 1998 by Tess Johnston, William Patrick Cranley and Tina Kanagaratnam.

Tina Kanagaratnam contacted me about a month ago. She had been to the Cite d’Architecture’s Art Deco Exhibition, “Art Deco style Made in France which ran from October 15, 2013 to February 17, 2014. There she saw the Shanghai section of the exhibit which featured some of my grandfather’s art deco work in China. She tracked me down through AMCA (Archives of Modern Chinese Art) based in Taiwan and Rita Wong. Rita kindly forwarded Tina’s email to me.

We came across a mention of your grandfather at the Art Deco exhibition in Paris last year, and we thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have something on the man who started it all at the World Congress in Shanghai. And then, the way these things go, suddenly his name kept popping up from different connections and friends.

All this is by way of saying that we’d be very interested in having a presentation of your grandfather’s life and work, with a focus on his work on the Paris Expo, and Art Deco, at the World Congress. (In fact, if you know anything about his architecture in Shanghai or Nanjing (buildings, addresses, etc.) we’d love that information!)

I love how these things just seem to fall into place!! You’d think my grandparents were up there orchestrating all this! Since then, Tina and I have been emailing back and forth. I’ve been digging up Shanghai and Nanjing specific information on LJP’s architecture. Hopefully some of the buildings will make the walking tours that they are organizing. I’ve also sent along information on the Westlake Expo 1929 in Hangzhou. All the pavilions were art deco inspired.

So it’s back into research mode. And I have about 6 months to brush up on my Mandarin! Agh!