Figuring History: A Look at Contemporary Chinese Art
Where's Confucius?
A Look at Contemporary Chinese Art
Introductory Text Panel:
After any revolution, change is inevitable. For centuries, Confucius and Daoist elements captured the brush of Chinese artists. Landscapes, calligraphy, and poetry were a framework for artists and Confucius scholars to abide. However, in 1966, chaos took China by storm and marked the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. In the effort to spread Maoist ideologies, socialist-realist propaganda replaced centuries of traditional Chinese art. During this time, the creation of non-nationalist art was dangerous for artists who were afraid to be counted with the millions who were humiliated, displaced, or dead. After the demise of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, China re-introduced itself to western art history and conventional Chinese methods. Artists once again pursued their craft. A decade later, after the tragedy that took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989, China sought quick refuge in Capitalism as a response to the failed communist movement. Used as a way to rebel against the past and their current capitalist state, Chinese art became a political commentary that dominated the art market.
As we walk through Where's Confucius, it is evident that Maoist ideology had a devastating and unsettling impact on the people of China. The narrative of this exhibition unfolds a story of politics and change while exploring the dichotomy of classic and modern Chinese styles. Avant-garde style and cynical themes now flourish in Chinese art, and one can only ask: Where's Confucius? Is it gone, or has it merely changed? Branded with heartache from the Cultural Revolution, artists such as Ai Weiwei, Yue Minjun, and Fang Lijun became leading contributors to the contemporary narrative. This exhibition is home to some of their most iconic pieces. Some contribute to the Cynical Realist movement, while others explore poetry, calligraphy, and landscape. Confucius and Daoist philosophies may be in flux, but like the people of China, the art remains extraordinary and forever changed.
Exhibition Layout:
Each piece in Where's Confucius is strategically placed: Introduce calligraphy, move into the landscape, and ending with figurative paintings. Although the works in this exhibition visually tell a contrast of classic Chinese and modern styles, the narrative reveals artists’ response to the Cultural Revolution and a post-Tiananmen society. Each piece elaborates after the next, unfolding a story of communism, capitalism, urban growth, and heartache. Five galleries host this exhibition. The first gallery is home to The Second Seal - Every Being That Opposes Progress Should Be Food for You (2009), which is an immersive installation. The following galleries are plain white with concrete floors. As we walk to the second gallery, two of Xue Feng's avant-garde landscape paintings hang across each other. In the third gallery, Ai Weiwei's Fragments (2005) sculpture alludes to western inspiration and the dramatic change of Beijing. Dedicated to Yue Minjun's figurative paintings, the fourth galleries Remarkable People (2007) and Backyard Garden (2007) begin to tell a more personal, cynical story. Concluding the exhibit is two pieces by Fang Lijun, which live in the last gallery. Hanging across from each other is Series 1, No. 5 (1990-91) and Untitled (2007) which is the final piece to experience; it is a large-scale illustration of China's current state and the next generation of children. An understanding of classical Chinese painting is beneficial, but without, the art and commentary speak for itself.
The Second Seal - Every Being That Opposes Progress Should Be Food for You
Tsang Kin-Wan 1976
2009
Digital video & sound installation, 6 min 30 sec. 4.17 x 27.15 m5
Inspired by apocalyptic theology from the west, The Second Seal - Every Being That Opposes Progress Should Be Food for You (2009) is the second large-scale multimedia installation in a series that is still in progress. This project alludes to the ominous prophecy from The Book Of Revelation (81 A.D.), where the spirit of conquest rides his red horse and marks the beginning of the great purge. English phrases "the wretched land" and "the purge" float across the walls to the chime of white noise and heavy rain to extend the conversation about violence and communism. Tsang Kin-Wans (1976) use of red not only refers to the horse in The Book of Revelation, but it is a symbol of the bloodshed that occurred in China during the late 20th century.
Background 1
Xue Feng 1973 2011
Oil on canvas 63 x 79 in.
China has analyzed artists’ brush strokes for centuries, and that of Xue Feng (1973) is one to notice. Feng is known for his monumental landscape paintings with the alarming application of brush strokes. Vibrancy is a remnant of a Chinese spring. Background 1 is the first in a series that depicts the same landscape in a constant state of flux, ie. Background 19. Here, the pagodas and boats disappear in the medium. The colors drip down into the ether, where the lines may travel is still unknown.
Background 19
Xue Feng 1973 2011
Oil on canvas 110 x 150 in.
Tourist-propaganda features only the most beautiful of local scenery, in fact, a photograph in a Hang- zhou tourist brochure inspires Background 19. Years after Background 1, the boats become more prominent as the pagodas blend in the dissolving landscape. Somewhere in the middle of lavish brush strokes, Background 19 concludes this story of change. The colors continue to drip down and start to reveal a new narrative. Xue Feng's landscape remains the same only by changing.
Fragments
Ai Weiwei 1957
2005
Tieli wood from Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), tables, and chairs. 196 9/10 × 334 3/5 × 275 3/5 in.
Ai Weiwei (1957) attended Parsons School of Design in the early 90s. Inspired by western pop artists like Andy Warhol (1928-1987) and Jasper Johns (1930), Weiwei took an interest in ready-made materials. After returning to China, Weiwei's unique style, and western schooling put him at the forefront of Chinese Contemporary Art. Misfit connections of tieli compose Fragments (2005). Using wood from ancient temples and reconstructing it in an unconventional manner is Weiwei's reminding of the countless temples ruined to accommodate an ever-urbanizing Beijing. Although Fragments began construction in 2005, Weiwei believes the project started hundreds of years ago when the wood first constructed temples during the Qing Dynasty.
Backyard Garden
Yue Minjun 1962 2007
Oil on canvas 110.2 x 157.5 in
Reluctant to admit, Yue Minjun (1962) grew into a leading figure of Cynical Realism. Minjinu's pink man physically embodies after himself, but it represents a more significant issue; it is the state of Beijing in a post-Tiananmen society. After the Tiananmen incident in 1989, an incumbent attitude that "everything is fine" became the prominent expectation of Chinese culture. Lost in disillusionment, one can only laugh. Located in a traditional Chinese-style pond, a single Koi is courageous but alone is without love. Four of Minjun's iconic pink men stand helplessly, grinning madly at the inevitable change of Beijing.
Remarkable People (2007) Yue Minjun 1962 2007
Color Lithograph
47.2 x 31.5 in.
Remarkable People is another mockery of China's political climate in the 1990s. As a reference to commercial pop-art, Yue Minjun (1962) can only ponder China's capitalist alchemy to communism. Using simple composition and bright colors, Minjun composed one of his most bold and striking paintings yet. Here, Minjun's iconic motif represents a Chinese female portrait. Published in Minjun's book Snatched Ecstacy (2008), Remarkable People appears alongside the decreasing presence of Chinese poetry:
"We are all singular, remarkable.
And so we explode with joie de virve.
I am that average exceptional man
That hero of new times.
My brow is not covered in laurel wreaths
Nor with Bacchus' vine leaves
But with life's roses that the poet long ago invited us to pluck.
I no longer have eyes, there is nothing left to see
So busy am I imagining within my own self.
And my mouth twisted by emblematic
Laughter opens onto a scene
"Toothily", in the dark pits of my wide-open throat." - Yue Minjun
Series 1, no. 5
Fang Lijun 1963 1990–1991
Oil on linen
32 x 39.5 in.
Fang Lijun (1973) grew into a prominent figure in Cynical Realism and continued to practice avant-garde. Lijun's large-scale figurative paintings often refer to the events of Tiananmen and China's socio-economic growth. Bald-headed Chinese men are a common motif in Lijun's paintings and share to a degree, self-reflection. As the population growth of China continues to soar, the struggle to recognize personal identity continues to be the most overwhelming of disasters. Who are we in this "all too human world"? The question has yet to be answered but is explored in the minds of the figures in Series 1, no. 5.
Untitled
Fang Lijun 1963
2007
Oil on canvas
3 panels, 141 7/10 × 295 3/10 in.
Fang Lijun's (1973) earliest memories are of the Cultural Revolution. Lijun gained international exposure in the early 90s when he exhibited in the Venice Biennale (1993, 1999). In the early 2000s, Lijun began to use children as a theme of his art to depict the relationship between the individual and society. Untitled found inspiration from a newspaper photograph. In Untitled, time does not exist, nor is it a recollection of a particular event. It is China in its current state. What is to come of the existence of China's youth and their abstract future that remains?
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