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A talent ‘magically linked’ to Shanghai fate
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NINETY-EIGHT years ago, a Hungarian-Slovak prisoner of the Russian army jumped from a train bound for a Siberian gulag near the Chinese border and made his way to Shanghai. Little could Laszlo Hudec have ever imagined on that day that his name would one day be ingrained in the city’s architectural history.
From 1918 to 1947, Hudec designed at least 60 buildings and was responsible for some of Shanghai’s most notable structures, including the Park Hotel, the Grand Theater, the Normandie Apartments, the American Club and the Moore Memorial Church. He died in the US in 1958.
An exhibition honoring Hudec and his works is now underway at the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. It will run through October 16.
The show, involving the efforts of 11 artists, seven professors and researchers, and four universities, displays more than 100 artworks in nearly 20 art forms, themed around Hudec. It includes paintings, sculptures, woodcarvings, photography, movies, spatial installations and architectural models.
“To know Hudec and his architecture is to know Shanghai’s history and future,” said Zheng Shiling, a Tongji University professor and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Hudec was adept at learning new styles and combining them into his designs. Shanghai fostered and inspired the architect, and the architect in turn gloried Shanghai culture.”
The second floor of the exhibition center is devoted to Hudec artworks. Two walls at the entrance are painted with Hudec’s design drawings, scaled up from the original ones in the Shanghai Urban Construction Archives.
Past the entrance, there is an artistic review of Hudec’s life and works in Shanghai.
“One man’s fate was magically linked with a city’s fate,” said Hua Xiahong, an associate profession at Tongji’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning. “One man’s talent timely chimed with a city’s dreams of development. That’s why a foreign architect could achieve such great heights.”
Hudec was born the son of a wealthy Slovakian architect and his Hungarian wife. He studied architecture at Budapest University and volunteered for the Austro-Hungarian army after the outbreak of World War I. He was captured by the Russian army in 1916 and sent to a prison camp in Siberia.
After his escape, Hudec joined the US architectural firm, RA Curry, in Shanghai. In 1925, he opened his own practice in the city. He later served as honorary consul for Hungary in Shanghai.
Hudec left Shanghai in 1947 and moved to Lugano and later to Rome. In 1950, he joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley.
Visitors to the exhibition can watch a short documentary film about painter Zhang Anpu, who trekked through Shanghai streets with pen and sketchpad to record Hudec’s buildings. Zhang donated his 30 pen-and-ink drawings to the exhibition center.
A few steps beyond is a collection of miniature models of Hudec’s most famous buildings, including the Union Building of the Joint Savings Society, the Park Hotel and the Country Hospital. On a nearby wall are photos of other structures by the architect.
A small, seatless cinema at the exhibition is screening “Dreamlike Shanghai,” fusing Hudec’s buildings with Chinese characters and Shanghai dialect.
On the floor is a huge map of the city, with each of Hudec’s projects illuminated by a small LED light.
Academics from Tongji University created five sculptures of wood, stone and metal, all using construction materials. Nearby is a bronze head sculpture of Hudec.
One big highlight of the exhibition is a three-meter pyrography entitled “Starry Shanghai,” done by Tongji students. Pyrography is the technique of decorating wood or leather by burning a design on the surface with a heated metallic point. Under the light of a projector, the art piece features Hudec designs in glimmering gold.
The Normandie Apartments, located on Huaihai Road and built in 1924, is considered one of Hudec’s most representative projects. Financed by a French firm, the eight-story steel-concrete structure was the first veranda-style complex in Shanghai — a vivid representation of the Neoclassical style of the French Renaissance.
A documentary film at the exhibition gives visitors a closer look at the history of the building. Shanghai writer Chen Danyan and senior editor Chen Baoping interviewed a dozen of the Normandie Apartments’ oldest residents to record their stories in the building. The interviews were used to produce the film.
A Hudec architecture logo competition is also running during the exhibition. All the logos designed by students from East China Normal University and Sanda University will be on display. Citizens can vote for their six favorites via smartphone or at a computer on site. After the first round of votes is counted, experts will pick out the best three entries.
“This is the first time that Hudec’s architecture is being exhibited in such an artistic way,” said Hang Yan, director of the exhibition center. “Hudec’s fusion designs and tolerant spirit equate with the city’s spirit of conviction, passion and history. This cross-generational, cross-cultural exhibition links us all. And if visitors leave enlightened, even slightly uplifted, then we think the exhibition is a success.”
Date: Through October 16, Tuesdays-Sundays, 9am-5pm (no entry after 4pm)
Venue: Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, 100 People’s Ave
Admission: 30 yuan for adults, 15 yuan for primary and middle school students, free entry for children under 1.2 meters tall
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