Deconstructing Contemporary Chinese Art (eBook)

Paul Gladston is a full professor at Nottingham - Chair of Contemporary Visual Cultures and Critical Theory. Between 2005 and 2010 he served as inaugural head of the Department of International Communications and director of the Institute for Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China. He has written extensively on the subject of contemporary Chinese art with particular reference to the concerns of critical theory. His recent book-length publications include Contemporary Art in Shanghai: Conversations with Seven Chinese Artists (Timezone 8 – Blue Kingfisher, 2011); a special edition of the Journal of Visual Art Practice, ‘Contemporary Chinese Art and Criticality’, co-edited with Katie Hill (2012); ‘Avant-Garde’ Art Groups in China, 1979–89 (Intellect and University of Chicago Press, 2013); and Contemporary Chinese Art: A Critical History (Reaktion and University of Chicago Press, 2014). He is principal editor of the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art and was an academic adviser to the exhibition ‘Art of Change: New Directions from China’, which was staged at the South Bank Centre in London in 2012.

Preface to “Chinese Contemporary Art Series” 7
Acknowledgments 9
Contents 10
About the Author 13
Introduction 14
Part I Essays 18
1 Somewhere (and Nowhere) Between Modernity and Tradition 19
1.1 Towards a Critique of International and Indigenous Perspectives on the Significance of Contemporary Chinese Art 19
1.2 Tradition, Modernity and the Development of Modern Art in China 20
1.3 Contemporary Art in China 22
1.4 Indigenous Debates on the International Reception of Contemporary Chinese Art 25
1.5 The Political Recuperation of Contemporary Chinese Art 27
1.6 Towards a Multi-voiced Critique 29
1.7 Indigenous Chinese Art Theory 30
1.8 International Art Theory 31
1.9 Conclusion 31
2 International Curatorial Practice and the Problematic De-Territorialization of the `Identity' Show 32
2.1 Introduction 32
2.2 The Politics of Identity 33
2.3 The Politics of Identity and International Curatorial Practice 35
2.4 Deconstructing the Third Guangzhou Triennial, Farewell to Post-Colonialism 39
2.5 Beyond the Abstractions of Institutionalized Post-Colonialism 43
3 Qianwei (`Avant-Garde') Art in Reform-Era China 45
3.1 Introduction 45
3.2 Contemporary Chinese Art---Differing Discursive Perspectives 45
3.3 The Western(ized) Avant-Gardes and Post-avant-Gardes 48
3.4 Qianwei (/`Avant-Garde') Art in China 50
3.5 Qianwei Art and the Persistence of (Subjective) Realism 53
4 Deconstructing Gao Minglu 56
4.1 Critical Reflections on Contemporaneity and Associated Exceptionalist Readings of Contemporary Chinese Art 56
4.2 Contemporaneity 57
4.3 Gao Minglu---`Total Modernity in Chinese Contemporary Art' 59
4.4 Conclusion 65
5 Cultural Translation and Post hoc Intellectual Conceit 67
6 `Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao': A Stratagem Towards a Post-crisical Art 77
6.1 Part I 77
6.2 Critical Distance and the Avant-Gardes 78
6.3 Antagonistic Aesthetics and the Neo-Marxian Turn 80
6.4 Part II 82
7 The Double Way 90
8 Silence and Recuperation 93
9 The Cult of Ai 95
10 The (Continuing) Story of Ai 98
Part II Conversations 101
11 Inside the Yellow Box 102
12 Track Changes 112
13 Low Resolution 121
14 Answering the Question---`What is the Chinese Avant-Garde?' 127
15 Disjuncture---Tradition---Indirectness 130
16 Collaboration as Struggle and Non-cooperation 134
17 Time, Life and Nature 138
18 `Sound Can Be Seen and Form Can Be Heard' 143
Part III Writing for Exhibitions 150
19 Immersion 151
19.1 Song Ling's Early Development as an Artist in the People's Republic of China 151
19.2 Liberalization of Artistic Practice in the PRC After the Death of Mao 151
19.3 The '85 New Wave 152
19.4 Avant-Garde Art Groups in China 154
19.5 The Pond Association (Chi She) 156
20 Overlit Realm/Inner World 163
21 Objectless Desire 169
22 A Concise Series of Statements (that May or May Not Be) About the Work of the Artist Han Feng 174
23 The 14th Month (After the Great Flood) 177
24 A Short Essay About the Work of Wang Xin and Chen Yongwei 182
Bibliography 184
Index 188