M+ director Suhanya Raffel signs the agreement with her MoMA counterpart, Glenn Lowry. -- Photo: Handout / SCMP
Hong Kong’s M+ museum has signed an agreement with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York to collaborate in several areas in the first such deal between the famed US institution and an Asian counterpart, which comes amid escalating geopolitical tensions.
Separately, the visual arts museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District said on Wednesday it would hold a special exhibition showcasing more than 200 works by renowned Chinese-French abstract painter Zao Wou-Ki in December.
Hong Kong holds the biggest collection of the late artist’s work outside France.
M+ revealed that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with MoMA on Tuesday to foster collaboration in areas such as curatorial research and exchange, conservation, programme sharing and talent development.
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The partnership comes amid worsening Sino-US relations since President Donald Trump took office last month. He imposed an additional 10 per cent tariff on imports from Hong Kong and mainland China in a move that places an extra burden on the city’s manufacturers and exporters.
Trump is also planning tariffs on all of the US’ trade partners.
“[The MOU] represents the beginning of a fruitful partnership between the two esteemed institutions, built on a shared commitment to international collaboration, cultural exchange and museum development,” M+ said.
MoMA, set up in 1929, is one of the world’s most famous museums and has a 200,000-item collection that includes masterpieces such as Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night and Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
M+ is relatively new, opening in 2021. M+ director Suhanya Raffel signed the agreement with her MoMA counterpart, Glenn Lowry.
The two museums will collaborate in six areas: joint curational research and exchange; conservation and collection management, from acquisition to preservation, care, display and access; artwork loans; sharing sustainability practices; training, professional development and knowledge sharing; and exhibition and programme exchanges.
“We value our open and ongoing dialogue and look forward to many joint efforts with MoMA to come,” Raffel said.
“The signing of this MOU affirms M+’s commitment to collaboration with pre-eminent cultural institutions around the world and strengthens M+’s position as Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture.”
Lowry, who is set to retire as MoMA’s director this year as he turns 70, described the deal as “an ambitious new collaboration”.
“We are thrilled to partner with M+ on an ambitious new collaboration, to exchange expertise and ideas that will help us take our museums forward in new and exciting directions and create more opportunities for our global audiences to experience and engage with contemporary art and artists,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Zao exhibition will run between December 13 this year and April 2026. It will be Asia’s first major retrospective of the graphic works of Zao, seen as one of the greatest abstract artists of the mid- and late 20th century.
The exhibition will feature more than 200 works produced between 1949 and 2000.
The items are part of M+’s collection, which includes prints, illustrated books, paintings, works on paper and documentary materials. They were donated by the artist’s widow, Madame Francoise Marquet-Zao, chief curator and president of the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation.
They are also derived from a selection of donated works from Zao’s daughter, Sin-May Roy Zao, to M+, as well as paintings and works on paper loaned from other museums and private collections.
The exhibition’s working title is “Zao Wou-Ki: Graphic Works”.
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