We’re open today from 11 AM—5 PM
On view
April 17, 2025 to January 4, 2026
Chinese-born painter Yan Pei-Ming (b. 1960) is noted for his commanding portraits and compositions that imbue conventional forms of representation with contemporary resonance. The artist alludes to traditions of Western art history and his own biography in A Burial in Shanghai. Comprised of three outsized canvases, this monumental triptych echoes Gustave Courbet’s (1819-1877) celebrated composition from two-hundred years earlier, A Burial at Ornans (1849-1850). The project, which debuted at Paris’s Musée d’Orsay in 2019, is being presented in the United States for the first time at MCASD.
Yan Pei-Ming: A Burial in Shanghai is organized by Kathryn Kanjo, The David C. Copley Director and CEO, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Exhibition and publication support generously provided by MASSIMODECARLO and Galerie Thaddeaus Ropac, with additional underwriting by Melissa Garfield Bartell and Michael Bartell, Gail and George Knox, and Garna Muller. Artist travel sponsored in part by Villa Albertine.
Operations and programs at MCASD are made possible by the contributions of the Museum’s Board of Trustees, MCASD Giving Circles and Members, and the City of San Diego through the Commission for Arts and Culture.
Members' Preview: "Yan Pei-Ming: A Burial in Shanghai"
Free Public Opening: "Yan Pei-Ming: A Burial in Shanghai"
Lecture on the Move: Yan Pei-Ming & Dr. Kuiyi Shen
Top: Yan Pei-Ming, "Un enterrement à Shanghai (Montagne céleste, Ma mère, L ’ adieu) (A Burial in Shanghai ((Celestial Mountain, My Mother, The Farewell))" [detail], 2019. © Yan Pei-Ming, ADAGP, Paris, 2025. Photo: Clérin-Morin. Courtesy of the artist, Massimo de Carlo & Thaddaeus Ropac.
