| After World War II, European and American contemporary art cast off its vanguard gloss as it went through the 1980s. As Achille Bonito Oliva said in Super Art (1988), the bureaucratic art system determined the admission of art’s value. Now, 20 years later, we can clearly tell that the key factor in such art systems is the art collection system governed by museums and collectors. These museums, which hold a monopoly on academic resources, together with wealthy collectors, became the umpire of contemporary art. Those artworks that were not able to become part of collections were exiled to the edge of the art domain. One example is performance art: it was considered exploratory from the 1950s to the 1970s, when it gained the most attention, but began to lose popularity after the 1980s. | 
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Shu Yang curated Painting Rebellion, which was on view from June 14 to July 27 at Gallery TN in Beijing.
Yang Qian, Hands #2 (Under Normal Light), 2008. Oil and mixed media on convas, 200 x 250 cm. Courtesy of the artist.After World War II, European and American contemporary art cast off its vanguard gloss as it went through the 1980s. As Achille Bonito Oliva said in Super Art (1988), the bureaucratic art system determined the admission of art’s value. Now, 20 years later, we can clearly tell that the key factor in such art systems is the art collection system governed by museums and collectors. These museums, which hold a monopoly on academic resources, together with wealthy collectors, became the umpire of contemporary art. Those artworks that were not able to become part of collections were exiled to the edge of the art domain. One example is performance art: it was considered exploratory from the 1950s to the 1970s, when it gained the most attention, but began to lose popularity after the 1980s. Though old performance artists still maintain their reputation, and art stars also continue to show themselves occasionally, performance art as a whole has already lost the enthusiasm of academic attention. Art critics’ understanding of these art works is worthy of our consideration. For example, American artist Jackson Pollock was famous for his “action painting;” he played an important role in the development of American performance art at that time. Critically, though, he is recognized as the representative artist of abstract expressionism nowadays. We can hardly tell his influence on the performance art of that time. If we are aware of how the modern art world runs, we will take these questions more seriously.
Briefly speaking, the powers decide on art on a day-to-day basis. An English advertising agency, the domain of Charles Saatchi, pushed a generation of young English artists of the 1990s into the spotlight solely on its own strength. Those artists today occupy many prominent positions in art museums. The representative artist of “Young British Artists” was Damien Hirst, and his platinum-and-diamond-skull work, For The Love of God, with 8601 diamonds and a weight of 1106.18 carat, was sold at a price of 50,000,000 pounds last year, fully proofing the victory of art as a symbol of capital. This is not only relevant to the art world but also larger issues like globalization, which is dominated by commodity. After all, we can only solve the art crisis after we have a clear perspective on the age in which we live.
There are contemporary artists who are rising in the domain of Chinese contemporary art, especially painters, who succeed in auctions, art museums, and with collectors. Painting is the most traditional and easily collectible artwork. It has been widely embraced in the groundbreaking Chinese art market in the past 4 years. It’s evidence of a recent trend in China as it follows capital globalization. Painting is enjoying its time in China, as it does not require much in the way of technology and gains popularity quickly in the capital market. More and more people became involved in painting when it established itself as a lucrative job, and this meant that capital had set up its orthodox status in the domain of art. This was not because of the spirited power of painting, but instead a reflection of the consideration of painting as collection and investment.
During the 30 years’ development of Chinese contemporary art, most of the creative arts and related events had a cultural, not economic, effect. This is how the experimental nature of art flourished and began breaking social taboo, capturing the focus of society in China. Collection of Chinese contemporary art achieved complete success, beginning with “Star Art Exhibition” (1979), until now. Those artists, auctions, galleries, and collectors who were successful in commerce were paid too much attention; what’s more, Chinese artists also began to use unprecedented ways of creating their work.
For example, artists employed assistants to make batch-type production that could sell at unexpected prices; artists or their assistants colored on the canvases after they were printed. Those paintings, images, and styles that gained commercial success were copied massively and transformed into inbreeding descendants. We can use the simple market economy theory to explain the vicissitude of skills and styles of contemporary painting, which have no unique cultural connotation. This phenomenon has become more and more mainstream in Chinese contemporary painting. In my opinion, the rise of business-driven collection in the art world challenged its basic value; the basic value of art is in its variety and personality. There are countless artworks in Chinese contemporary painting that were manufactured for commercial sale and collection; the flood of this new work is slowly becoming debris. This debris does not only come from the drowning of the market but also from the poor quality of the work, and now the market is full of amateur artworks alongside that of talented artists.
We cannot resist the power of capital nowadays. It’s undoubted that art created the capital market, but the problem is that art also has its own value, in raising awareness, breaking conventional ideas, dispelling the clash between different cultures, etc. We can neither mark the price of these needs nor bring it about through commerce. Art’s value is in its resource of creativity, which far exceeds business in import.
I use the title of “Painting Rebellion” for this exhibition because I want to talk about the problems of contemporary art discussed above.
“Painting Rebellion" came from one of my live painting exhibitions in Inter Art Center in June 2007, at 798. Twelve artists participated in that exhibition: Chen Guang, Fenni, Lan Yi, Li Yang, Ma Ning, Man Yu, Jiri Straka,Yu Xinjiao, Zhang Yi, Y.B Zhao and Yongyang + Zhou Mian. Live painting is related to live performance in that subjects of live art and performance art are involved in the act of painting. We were attempting to discuss and explore how to implicate traditional art, such as painting, in experimental Chinese contemporary art. We tried to put this exploration into practice during the exhibition "Painting Rebellion" in Gallery TN at 798 again. I maintained live paintings from Ma Ning, Jiri Straka, Man Yu and Y.B Zhao, and added non-live paintings from He Sen, Yang Qian, Chen Guang, Lan Yi, Zhao Junsheng, Zhu Jiuyang and Zhou Yongyang + Zhou Mian. This convergence represented the possibility of different creations. The artists each joined the painting creation team in different ways and demonstrated their multi-faceted perspectives on society, culture, and art. Some of the artworks in this exhibition gained success in the vigorous market; however, their game regulation is not in flux with the stream of the market. The decisive element of these works’ value is the exploration of art. That’s why all works in this exhibition are necessary, but each in its own way.
Chinese tradition takes the revision of history very seriously, and emphasizes the orthodox status of such historical writing. Historically, people have conceptualized activities of challenging orthodox status as "rebellions,” such as "The An Shih Rebellion.” If commercial painting embodies the orthodox status of art in modern times, then Painting Rebellion is an attempt at challenging said orthodox status. That’s why I titled this exhibition, “Rebellion.” Some artists in this exhibition are not widely known, so they can realize the freedom characteristic of the creation of art through their “edge status.” Let’s rebel against commercial art through "painting rebellion,” even though it might be ignored eventually by the official history of commercial art.
