Academic discourses have thus far largely dedicated surveys and retrospectives to the birth and development of Chinese contemporary art and its transition to global modernization in the last twenty-seven years. Since art entered the cultural enlightenment programme nationwide, historicism has played a major role in both the theoretical interpretation and visual presentation of Chinese artists’ commitment to individual and social practices.
New Confrontations
Beatrice Leanza
"9 Lives — The Birth Of Avant-Garde Art In New China" written by Karen Smith
Academic discourses have thus far largely dedicated surveys and retrospectives to the birth and development of Chinese contemporary art and its transition to global modernization in the last twenty-seven years. Since art entered the cultural enlightenment programme nationwide, historicism has played a major role in both the theoretical interpretation and visual presentation of Chinese artists’ commitment to individual and social practices. Such a juxtaposition circumvented the treatment of some of these personalities not only as pioneers of a "spiritualized" elitist movement, but as "modernist philosophers" contributing to the national rhetoric by means of their singular life circumstances feeding into art.
Soon to be released (June-July), Karen Smith’s "9 Lives — The Birth Of Avant-Garde Art In New China" fills this gap, by casting nine artistic life trails onto the human backdrop of the 80s, a decade when the struggle for social adjustment, utopianism and democracy movements confronted the public and the powers that be. During this time, too, the impact of commercialism and mass culture orchestrated the visual and conceptual trends of the years to come.
This book tries to present the compelling personalities who succeeded in establishing the orientations of the following decade (90s) and that of young Chinese art today. by turning inspirational to this extent. The events unfolded onto private and intimate life occurrences, when ideology was performed as an encompassing movement based on group-defined positions and trends.
The author has been witnessing the transition since the early 90s, and through her private remembrances and actual participation in the local establishment of a formulated criticism, we are shown the facts and points-in-ones-life that trace the psychological structures negotiating self-affirmation onto a political and social scenario of scarce public confrontation and integrated critique.
The three sections of the book are arranged (along with the commitment of modern China) according to: the legacy of the Cultural Revolution, where Wang Guangyi, Geng Jianyi and Fang Lizhun are presented as trend setters, as their attitudes became the form of Political Pop and Cynical Realism parody; the escape from the commercial waves and search for intellectual criteria rooted into personal idiosyncrasies and urgencies, as well as exploration of the liminal zones of existential concerns challenged by Gu Dexin, Li Shan and Zhan Xiaogang; and ultimately the face-up with contemporary issues of internationalization, technological advancement and globalization setting the stage for new media art, from video to installation and experimental theatre/cinema. This last section is represented by Xu Bing, Zhang Peili and Wang Jianwei.
This first and long awaited publication will be followed by one focusing on the 90s, likewise featuring characters that emerged during the decade when Chinese art finally entered the international stage and started being formulated according to new confrontations and dialogue with enlarged geographies.
