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China Goes Contemporary
| Article
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21932 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1993 |
1,903 Words |
| Author
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Scarlet Cheng
Scarlet Cheng, based in Los Angeles, is a contributing editor
to the arts section of The World & I. |
A landmark exhibition of contemporary Chinese art, China's New Art, Post-1989, has demonstrated yet again that artists are the vanguard of the new. The irony is that this show did not open in Beijing, the cultural center of China, but in Hong Kong, that little territory so much in dispute between China and Great Britain. In January and February some two hundred pieces by fifty-one artists from the Peoples Republic were presented, the larger works and installations displayed at Hong Kong's City Hall and the rest at the Hong Kong Arts Center. This month the show goes to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia.
Ever since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, when the tight reins of state control over the arts began loosening, Chinese artists have been absorbing the influences of the West and trying to find their own paths of expression in the modern world. However, although artists were able to turn away from the propaganda art that had ruled for three decades, the state, via control of the various art academies and gallery spaces, has still imposed its sanctioned genre: realism.
Beijing art critic Li Xianting, who is co-curator of the exhibition, has explained the preference" "In essence, the reason that realism became established as the single most important style in modern Chinese painting is that the Realist movement in China was not so much aesthetic revolution as a social revolution that aimed at harnessing art to promote revolutionary ideals."
In the privacy of their studios, however, some artists insisted on creating outside the mandated genre. In February 1989 these artists had a chance to show their works publicly: When the astonishing China/Avant Garde exhibition opened in Beijing at the prestigious China Art Gallery, it included everything from abstract and conceptual works to trendy installations.
Unfortunately, the show was closed down early after two artists decided to add a bit of performance art by firing shots into own installation. When it turned out that the shooters were children of high-level cadres they were released, and a few days later the show was reopened-but the black mark was upon the avant-garde. The incident had confirmed deep-seated fears that the avant-garde was synonymous with sedition.
Furthermore with the brutal crushing of the student democratic movement at Tiananmen Square on June 4,1989, a chill set in, in all forms of public expression.
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