Photo By Gail

Cui Jie’s Salam Tower, Doha (2020) was acquired by MoMA in 2021 and in currently in its debut presentation at the museum. The Salam Tower is a waterfront skyscraper that was built as power of Qatar’s redevelopment efforts after the oil crisis of 1979. In Cui’s otherworldly depiction, the building is interwoven with symbols from socialist monuments in China and Europe. It soars above, but also seems to dissolve into the artificially saturated water beneath it. A leading member of the post 1980s generation of Chinese artist, Cui lives and works in Shanghai and focuses on painting, design, and the global histories of modernism, capitalism, and communism.

Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.