Often, it is thought that art galleries are places to promote artists and their work. However, for ages, art galleries have been more than that. It is a single and most unifying space that can be associated with human expression, representing issues of society and emotions. Art galleries can be seen as a home where artwork speaks about the stories and histories of humans in an individual and varied fashion. One such art gallery that is honing the conversation around the world and becoming a bridge between the East and West is the Pearl Lam Art Galleries.
Since the opening of the first Pearl Lam Art Gallery in 2005 by the international gallerist Peral Lam, it has become a singular platform to communicate with the public and create a space for conversation on multiple levels. Art galleries are important to society because they have the power to showcase the worldliness of everything within the world and play with imagination in a nutshell, but with boundless depth.
Guernica: Example of Rethinking The Modern World
One artwork that can be given as an example that has changed the way society perceives the modern world is Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. The oil painting is a composition by the master that depicts the chaos and violence of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy’s bombing of Northern Spain’s Basque County town, Guernica.
History of Guernica Painting
Commissioned in 1937 by the Spanish Republican government to be displayed at the Paris World Fair. The proposition by the government was to create a large mural to raise funds and awareness about the Spanish Civil War during the Paris World Trade Fair. But it all changed with the bombing of the town of Guernica by Nazi warplanes.
Picasso came to know about the incident after reading the eyewitness account of George Steer, which was published in The New York Times and The Time, on April 28, 1937. The idea of creating a mural was abandoned by Picasso, and at the insistence of poet Juan Larrea, the subject of bombing Guernica was created.
The result was 3.49 metres tall and 7.76 metres across. A black, grey, and white oil painting was done that showed a dead baby, a screaming woman, and a gored horse. Currently displayed in Mueso Renia Sofia, Madrid, Spain, the oil painting stays as relevant as ever, even today.
Impacting the Modern World
Guernica is one such example of art, and the display of artwork in an art gallery still incites conversation about the mayhem that the modern world can cause with its technology and war. It remains a reminder of the massacre that World War II caused and ripped the world apart.
Pearl Lam Art Galleries: Forging a Conversation
Pearl Lam is considered to be a driving force in changing the contemporary art landscape of Asia. As the owner of Pearl Lam Galleries, she has been playing a vital role in initiating the conversation and forging a dialogue between the East and West through art. Pearl Lam aims to develop a cross-cultural exchange by re-evaluating the present understanding of Eastern culture by the West and vice versa.
Pearl Lam has become one of the most recognisable gallerists in the world and is often considered a powerhouse of China’s art world. Apart from promoting both Asian, African, and European artists, Pearl Lam maintains a balanced roster of international and Chinese artists. The intent is to have a strategic curation and position the gallery in the world as an educator who changes society through art.
