Contemporary Chinese Art. Chinese Contemporary Art: A Crisis? — Art magazine

It is believed that the period from the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 to the present is a single stage in the development of contemporary art in China. What conclusions can be drawn if we try to understand the history of Chinese art over the past hundred years in the light of contemporary international events? This history cannot be studied, considering it in the logic of linear development, divided into stages of modernity, postmodernity - on which the periodization of art in the West is based. How then are we to construct a history of contemporary art and talk about it? This question has occupied me since the 1980s, when the first book on contemporary Chinese art was written. i. In subsequent books such as Inside Out: New Chinese Art, The Wall: Changing Chinese Contemporary Art, and especially the recently published Ypailun: Synthetic Theory vs. Representation, I have attempted to answer this question by looking at specific phenomena of the art process.

As basic characteristic contemporary Chinese art is often cited for the fact that its styles and concepts were mostly imported from the West rather than natively nurtured. However, the same can be said about Buddhism. It was brought to China from India about two thousand years ago, took root and turned into an integral system, and eventually bore fruit in the form of Chan Buddhism (known in Japanese as Zen) - an independent national branch of Buddhism, as well as a whole body of canonical literature and related philosophy, culture and art. So, it is possible that Chinese contemporary art will still need a lot of time before it develops into an autonomous system - and today's attempts to write its own history and often question comparison with global analogues serve as a prerequisite for its future development. In the art of the West, since the era of modernism, the main power vectors in the aesthetic field have been representation and anti-representation. Such a scheme, however, is hardly suitable for the Chinese scenario. It is impossible to apply such a convenient aesthetic logic based on the opposition of tradition and modernity. In social terms, the art of the West since the time of modernism has taken the ideological position of the enemy of capitalism and the market. In China, there was no capitalist system to fight against (although ideologically charged opposition engulfed the bulk of the artists of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s). During the era of rapid and fundamental economic transformation in the 1990s, China's contemporary art found itself in a system far more complex than that of any other country or region.

It is impossible to apply an aesthetic logic based on the opposition of tradition and modernity to Chinese contemporary art.

Take, for example, the much-discussed revolutionary art of the 1950s and 1960s. China imported socialist realism from the Soviet Union, but the process and purpose of the imports were never detailed. In fact, Chinese students who studied art in the Soviet Union and Chinese artists were more interested not in socialist realism per se, but in the art of the Wanderers and critical realism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This interest arose as an attempt to replace Western classical academism, which was inaccessible at that time, through which the assimilation of artistic modernity in its Western version proceeded in China. The Parisian academicism propagated by Xu Beihong and his contemporaries, who were educated in France in the 1920s, was already too distant a reality to become a model and guide for the younger generation. To pick up the baton of the pioneers of the modernization of art in China, it was necessary to turn to the classical tradition of Russian painting. It is obvious that such an evolution has its own history and logic, which are not directly determined by the socialist ideology. The spatial connection between China in the 1950s, artists of the same age as Mao Zedong himself, and the realist tradition of Russia at the end of the 19th century already existed and therefore did not depend on the absence or presence of political dialogue between China and Soviet Union in the 1950s. Moreover, since the art of the Wanderers was more academic and romantic than critical realism, Stalin identified the Wanderers as the source socialist realism and, as a result, had no interest in the representatives of critical realism. Chinese artists and theorists just did not share this “bias”: in the 1950s and 1960s, a large number of studies on critical realism appeared in China, albums were published and many books were translated from Russian. scientific works. After the completion of the cultural revolution, Russian pictorial realism became the only starting point in the modernization of art that was unfolding in China. In such typical works of "scar painting", as, for example, in the painting by Cheng Conglin "Once in 1968. Snow”, the influence of the Wanderer Vasily Surikov and his “Boyar Morozova” and “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” can be traced. The rhetorical devices are the same: the emphasis is on depicting the real and dramatic relationships of individuals against the background historical events. Of course, "scar painting" and Wandering realism arose in radically different social and historical contexts, and yet we cannot say that the similarity between them is reduced only to imitation of style. At the beginning of the 20th century, having become one of the key pillars of the Chinese "revolution in art", realism significantly influenced the trajectory of the development of art in China - precisely because it was more than a style. He had an extremely close and deep connection with the progressive value of "art for life".

Quan Shanshi. Heroic and indomitable, 1961

Canvas, oil

Cheng Chonglin. Once upon a time in 1968. Snow, 1979

Canvas, oil

From the collection of the National Art Museum of China, Beijing

Wu Guanzhong. Spring grasses, 2002

Paper, ink and paints

Wang Yidong. Picturesque area, 2009

Canvas, oil

The rights to the image belong to the artist

Or let's turn to the phenomenon of similarity between the red pop art movement, which was initiated by the Red Guards at the beginning of the "cultural revolution", and Western postmodernism - I wrote about this in detail in the book "On the regime of Mao Zedong's folk art" i. "Red Pop" completely destroyed the autonomy of art and the aura of the work, fully involved social and political functions art, destroying the boundaries between different media and took as many advertising forms as possible, from radio broadcasts, films, music, dance, war reports, cartoons to commemorative medals, flags, propaganda and handwritten posters, with the sole purpose of creating an all-encompassing, revolutionary and populist visual art. In terms of propaganda effectiveness, commemorative medals, badges, and handwritten wall posters are just as effective as Coca-Cola advertising media. And the worship of the revolutionary press and political leaders in its scope and intensity even surpassed the similar cult of the commercial press and celebrities in the West. i.

From the point of view of political history, the "red pop" appears as a reflection of the blindness and inhumanity of the Red Guards. Such a judgment does not stand up to criticism if we consider "red pop" in the context of world culture and personal experience. This is a complex phenomenon, and its study requires, among other things, a thorough study of the international situation of that period. The 1960s were marked by uprisings and riots around the world: anti-war demonstrations were everywhere, the hippie movement, the civil rights movement, was growing. Then there is another circumstance: the Red Guards belonged to the generation that was sacrificed. At the beginning of the "cultural revolution", they spontaneously organized to participate in left-wing extremist activities and, in fact, were used by Mao Zedong as a lever to achieve political goals. And the result for these yesterday's pupils and students was expulsion to rural and border areas for a ten-year "re-education": it is in pitiful and helpless songs and stories about "intellectual youth" that the source of underground poetry and art movements after the "cultural revolution" lies. Yes, and the experimental art of the 1980s also experienced the undoubted influence of the "red guards". Therefore, whether we consider the end of the “cultural revolution” or the mid-1980s as the starting point for the history of contemporary art in China, we cannot refuse to analyze the art of the era of the cultural revolution. And especially - from the "red priest" of the Red Guards.

In the second half of 1987 and the first half of 1988, in Contemporary Chinese Art, 1985-1986, I attempted to justify the stylistic pluralism that had become the defining feature of the new visuality in the post-Cultural Revolution period. We are talking about the so-called new wave 85. From 1985 to 1989, as a result of an unprecedented information explosion on the Chinese art scene (in Beijing, Shanghai and other centers), all the main artistic styles and techniques created by the West over the last century. It is as if the century-old evolution of Western art has been re-enacted, this time in China. Styles and theories, many of which belonged more to the historical archive than to living history, were interpreted by Chinese artists as "modern" and served as an impetus for creativity. To clarify this situation, I used the ideas of Benedetto Croce that "every story is modern history". True modernity is the awareness of one's own activity at the moment when it is carried out. Even when events and phenomena refer to the past, the condition for their historical knowledge is their "vibration in the consciousness of the historian." “Modernity” in the artistic practice of the “new wave” took on its shape, weaving the past and present, the life of the spirit and social reality into a single ball.

1. Art is a process through which a culture can come to know itself comprehensively. Art is no longer reduced to the study of reality driven into a dichotomous dead end, when realism and abstraction, politics and art, beauty and ugliness, social service and elitism are opposed. (In this connection, remember Croce’s assertion that self-consciousness seeks to “distinguish by uniting; and difference here is no less real than identity, and identity no less than difference.”) The main priority is to expand the boundaries of art.
2. The field of art includes both non-professional artists and the general public. In the 1980s, in many respects, it was non-professional artists who were the bearers of the spirit of radical experiment - it was easier for them to break away from the established circle of ideas and practices of the Academy. In general, the concept of unprofessionalism, in fact, is one of the basic in the history of classical Chinese "painting of educated people." Intellectual artists ( literary) constituted an important social group of “cultural aristocrats”, which, starting from the 11th century, carried out the cultural construction of the entire nation and, in this respect, was rather opposed to artists who received their craft skills at the imperial Academy and often remained at the imperial court.
3. Movement towards the art of the future is possible through overcoming the gap between Western postmodernism and Eastern traditionalism, through the convergence of modern philosophy and classical Chinese philosophy(such as Chan).

Yue Minjun. Red boat, 1993

Canvas, oil

Fang Lijun. Series 2, number 11, 1998

Canvas, oil

Image courtesy of Sotheby's Hong Kong

Wang Guangyi. Materialistic Art, 2006

Diptych. Canvas, oil

Private collection

Wang Guangyi. Great criticism. Omega, 2007

Canvas, oil

Cai Guoqiang. Drawing for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation: Ode to Joy, 2002

Paper, gunpowder

Image copyright Christie's Images Limited 2008. Image courtesy of Christie's Hong Kong

However, the “modern art” produced in China between 1985 and 1989 was by no means intended to be a replica of modernist, postmodernist, or the current globalized art of the West. First, it did not in the least strive for independence and isolation, which, coarsening, constituted the essence of the modernist art of the West. European modernism paradoxically believed that escapism and isolation could overcome the alienation of the human artist in capitalist society—hence the artist's commitment to aesthetic disinterest and originality. In China, in the 1980s, artists, different in their aspirations and artistic identity, were in a single experimental space of large-scale exhibitions and other actions, the most striking of which was the China/Avant-Garde exhibition in Beijing in 1989. Such actions were, in fact, socio-artistic experiments of an extraordinary scale, which went beyond the scope of a purely individual statement.

Secondly, the “new wave of 85” had little in common with postmodernism, which questioned the very possibility and necessity of individual self-expression, which modernism insisted on. Unlike postmodernists, who rejected idealism and elitism in philosophy, aesthetics, and sociology, Chinese artists in the 1980s were captured by a utopian vision of culture as an ideal and elitist sphere. The exhibition-actions already mentioned were a paradoxical phenomenon, since the artists, asserting their collective marginality, at the same time demanded the attention and recognition of society. It was not stylistic originality or political engagement that determined the face of Chinese art, but the incessant attempts of artists to position themselves in relation to a society that was transforming before our eyes.

It was not stylistic originality or political engagement that determined the face of Chinese art, but precisely the attempts of artists to position themselves in relation to a transforming society.

To summarize, we can say that for reconstructing the history of contemporary art in China, a multidimensional spatial structure is much more effective than a meager temporal linear formula. Chinese art, unlike Western art, did not enter into any relationship with the market (due to its absence) and at the same time was not defined solely as a protest against the official ideology (which was typical for Soviet art 1970-1980s). With regard to Chinese art, an isolated and static historical narrative that builds the lines of succession of schools and classifies typical phenomena within a particular period is unproductive. Its history becomes clear only in the interaction of spatial structures.

At the next stage, which began in the late 1990s, Chinese art created a special finely balanced system, when different vectors both reinforce and counteract each other. This, in our opinion, is a unique trend that is not characteristic of contemporary Western art. Now three types of art coexist in China - academic realistic painting, classical Chinese painting ( guohua or wenren) and contemporary art (sometimes referred to as experimental). Today, the interaction between these components no longer takes the form of opposition in the aesthetic, political or philosophical field. Their interaction occurs through competition, dialogue or cooperation between institutions, markets and events. This means that a dualistic logic that pits aesthetics and politics is not good enough to explain Chinese art from the 1990s to the present. The logic of "aesthetic versus political" was relevant for a brief period from the late 1970s to the first half of the 1980s - for the interpretation of art after the "cultural revolution". Some artists and critics naively believe that capitalism, which has not liberated art in the West, will bring freedom to the Chinese, since it has a different ideological potential that is in opposition to the political system, but in the end, capital in China also successfully erodes and undermines the foundations of contemporary art. Modern Art, which has gone through a complex process of becoming over the past thirty years, is now losing its critical dimension and is instead involved in the pursuit of profit and fame. Contemporary art in China must first of all be based on self-criticism, even if individual artists are more or less influenced and subject to the temptations of capital. Self-criticism is exactly what is missing now; This is the source of the crisis in contemporary art in China.

Material courtesy of Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art.

Translation from Chinese to English by Chen Kuandi

On the world stage, contemporary Chinese art has appeared relatively recently. The so-called "Chinese boom" occurred in 2005, when, for a small number of objective reasons, the prices for paintings by contemporary Chinese artists increased more than tenfold. On the world stage, contemporary Chinese art has appeared relatively recently. The so-called "Chinese boom" occurred in 2005, when, for a small number of objective reasons, the prices for paintings by contemporary Chinese artists increased more than tenfold. There is an opinion that an information war is actually being waged on the international art market. Conducting multi-million dollar deals to buy Chinese art is not always supported by facts. Often there are cases of delay in payment of the lot due to the appearance of doubts about the authenticity of the monument. For example, the most expensive painting sold at Christie's in 2011, "Long Life, Peaceful Land" by Qi Baishi, has been in storage for two years. With the help of such instances as the Chinese government, the media, dealers, the cost of works of art is artificially inflated. Thus, experts say that “the Chinese government is pursuing a policy of falsifying the prosperous, stable and prosperous background of the PRC in order to attract foreign investors' money to the country.” Thanks to the announcement of record sales, Chinese auction houses and representative offices of the world in China have become the international leaders in the art market, which has allowed to raise prices for works from China. Also, at the moment, it is rather difficult to assess Chinese art objects, since there are no appropriate criteria, which also contributes to a free interpretation of the value of the work. Thus, according to Abigail R. Esman, the “soap bubble” of art objects is beneficial to the PRC government. In turn, Chinese contemporary art dealers unnaturally raise prices for the works of the artists they patronize. According to Dr. Claire McAndrew, “The boom in the Chinese market has been driven by rising wealth, strong domestic supply and buyer investment. The fact that China has taken a leading position in the global art market does not mean that it will retain its position in the coming years. The Chinese market will face the challenge of realizing more stable and longer-term growth.”

Nevertheless, at the moment, Chinese artists are known and popular all over the world, they make up to 39% of the revenue in the contemporary art market. This fact has both objective explanations, and based on the personal, subjective taste of the buyer, and so on, which should be further understood.

“Asian art is rapidly becoming international, and there has been a significant increase in purchases from both the rest of Asia and the West,” said Kim Chuan Mok, head of the South Asian Painting Department. At the moment the most by expensive artists China are Zeng Fanzhi, Cui Ruzhou, Fan Zeng, Zhou Chunya and Zhang Xiaogang. At the same time, the work of Zeng Fanzhi " The Last Supper” in 2013 was sold at Sotheby’s for $ 23.3 million, which is a record amount not only for the Asian market, but also for the West, putting it in fourth place on the list of the most expensive works by contemporary artists.

In three years, China has bypassed the United States and Great Britain in terms of sales in the art market, which initially occupied a leading position in the world. Among Christie's departments, the Asian art market is in second place in terms of importance and profitability. According to Artprice, China accounts for 33% of the contemporary art market, while American - 30%, British - 19%, and French - 5%.

Why is contemporary Chinese art so popular?

Today, Chinese art is extremely relevant and important, partly because China itself has become one. Art centered around an economically strong centre. But there are quite specific explanations for the rise in prices.

In 2001 China joined the WTO, which influenced the increase in the presence of auction houses in the region, which in turn began to adapt to the personal preferences of new buyers. Thus, in the first decade of the 21st century, about a hundred auction houses were opened in China. Both local, such as Poly International, China Guardian, and international: since 2005, Forever International Auction Company Limited has been operating in Beijing under a license obtained from Christie's, in 2013-2014, world leaders Christie's and Sotheby's opened their direct representative offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. As a result, if in 2006 China's share of the world art market was 5%, then already in 2011 it was about 40%.

In 2005 there was a so-called "Chinese boom", in which prices for works of Chinese masters rose sharply from several tens of thousands to a million dollars. So, if one of the Mask Series paintings by Zeng Fanzhi in 2004 was sold for 384,000 HKD, then already in 2006, a work from the same series went for 960,000 HKD. Uta Grosenick, a German art historian, believes that this is due to the venue Olympic Games Beijing. "Attention to modern China has shifted to contemporary Chinese art, which turned out to be understandable to the Western audience."

During periods of economic instability, the art market grows. 2007-2008 years are characterized by specialists as a period sharp increase sales of painting as a whole by 70%, also increasing demand for contemporary Chinese art. This can be seen in Zeng Fanzhi's sales at Sotheby's and Christies auctions. In 2008, the crisis year, he broke a price record. Painting "Mask series No. 6" was sold at Christies for 9.66 million dollars, which exceeds the most expensive sale for 2007 and 2006 by almost 9 times. During the economic crisis, art is the second most popular alternative asset after luxury goods. "The presence of hoarding objects in the company's portfolio allows not only to diversify risks, but also to provide additional profitability, which is ahead of some stock market indicators."

For Chinese entrepreneurs, who are the main buyers, investing in art seems to be the most rational and promising, since the Chinese Communist Party has limited real estate speculation, which has led to the need to find new ways to solve the problem. Art objects are ideal for preserving investor anonymity.“The best-known ways of making large investments in the arts of developing countries, in particular China, are meetings of hedge funds and organizations with direct investments, when in fact they buy a part in a portfolio of several positions of art objects, but do not buy ownership.” The ban on the export of capital in excess of $ 50,000 per year, Chinese investors have learned to bypass. An underestimated cost of work is declared, the difference is transferred to foreign accounts. Thus, it is almost impossible to calculate the outflow of capital to another country. “Pictures for such investors are an instrument of an investment mechanism, ideal in terms of secrecy.” For these purposes, during the first decade of the 20th century, institutions were formed in China that made it possible to invest in hoarding facilities. So, at the moment in China there are more than 25 funds of artistic values ​​and art exchanges, special editions are issued to help make the right and profitable investments.

The popularity of investment in contemporary art began to increase with growing number of young entrepreneurs and increase living wage representative of the middle class of the BRIC countries. So in China at the moment there are 15 billionaires, 300,000 millionaires, and the average wage is 2000$. "Contemporary art of the second half of the twentieth century is just right for young businessmen who may not have time to go to museums and galleries or read books and leaf through catalogs." These people often do not have the proper level of education, but have enough money for the right investment, which leads to a large number Chinese investors in art and small art collectors thereof. But they know that the product will increase in price, and therefore later it will be possible to resell it profitably.

In Asia, Russia and the Middle East, the purchase of art objects has a large economic, cultural and "status" connotations. Thus, the object of art is also a positivist investment that determines the status of the owner and raises his prestige and position in society. “When Chinese investors want to diversify their investment portfolio, they most often turn to luxury goods, analysts at Artprice say, so buying a painting by a contemporary artist is like buying something in a Louis Vuitton boutique for them.”

For businessmen and officials in China, the purchase of works of art, in particular by local masters, is of interest, since there is a layer of so-called "cultivated functionaries" who accept bribes in this form. The appraiser before the start of the auction underestimates the market value of the picture so that it can no longer be a bribe. This process was called "Yahui" and as a result became "a powerful driving force of China's art market."

One of the reasons for the popularity of Chinese contemporary art is painting style, understandable and interesting not only to the Chinese themselves, but also to Western buyers. Artists from China were able to accurately reflect the "cultural and political phenomena of the modern Asian world", especially since the issues of the collision of East and West do not cease to be relevant today. On the territory of China, media propaganda of active participation in the development of the country's art market is carried out. More than 20 television programs, 5 magazines are offered to the attention of recipients, covering such topics as “participation in art auctions”, “identification of art relics”, etc. According to the official website of the auction house Poly International: “Poly is an auction visual arts, the main goal of which is to return art to the people of China”, from which follows the following reason for the increased demand for Chinese art.

"A Chinese man will not buy a work of art from a non-Chinese." From the point of view of ethics, subjects national art bought by investors or collectors from a given country. Thus, they raise prices for the work of their compatriots and carry out the ideological setting - they return art to their homeland. Many collectors are residents of the region, and this rise in South Asian art is in line with the influx of art from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines,” said Kim Chuan Mok, head of the South Asia Painting Department.

Art objects, including modern painting, purchased for formation of collections of new museums in China. At the moment, there is a phenomenon of "museum boom" in China, so in 2011, 390 museums were opened in China, respectively, there is a need for their worthy filling. In China, the easiest way is to purchase works at the auctions of auction houses, and not directly from the artist or through the gallery, this explains the fact of increased both demand and supply for Chinese contemporary art.

At the moment, China is the leader in the contemporary art market. Despite the fact that the works of local artists are mainly bought directly in China, and less often from abroad, the Chinese themselves, the popularity of Chinese contemporary painting and its importance in the context of the global art market cannot be denied. The "Chinese boom" that began about ten years ago does not leave the world and its masters never cease to amaze both with their works and their prices.

Bibliography:

1. Wang Wei Collecting Activities and Forms of Presentation of National Art in PRC Museums: dissertation - St. Petersburg, 2014. - 202 p.
2. Gataullina K.R., Kuznetsova E.R. Comparative analysis of the behavior of buyers of contemporary art in Russia and European countries // Economics: yesterday, today, tomorrow, 2012, pp.20-29
3. Drobinina Russian and Chinese art investors. There are few similarities // Electronic resource: http://www.bbc.com/ (Accessed 03/12/2016)
4. Zavadsky Very dear Chinese // Electronic resource: http://www.tyutrin.ru/ru/blogs/10-ochen-dorogie-kitaytsy (Accessed 06/07/2016)
5. Investment in art is a sign of the economic crisis.//Electronic resource: http://www.ntpo.com/ (Accessed 12.03.2016)
6. Chinese art market//Electronic resource: http://chinese-russian.ru/news/ (Accessed 13.03.2016)
7. Zhang Daley. The value and values ​​of China's contemporary art market//Electronic resource: http://jurnal.org/articles/2014/iskus9.html (Accessed 03/12/2016)
8. Shchurina S.V. “Financial risks of investments in art objects”// Electronic resource: http://cyberleninka.ru/ (Accessed 12.03.2016)
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10. Jordan Levin China becoming a major player in the international art world//Electronic resource: http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jordan-levin/article4279669.html

Canvases by Chinese artists of the 21st century continue to sell at auctions like hot cakes, and expensive ones at that. For example, contemporary artist Zeng Fanzhi painted The Last Supper, which was sold for 23.3 million dollars, and is included in the list of the most expensive paintings of our time. However, despite its importance on the scale of world culture and world fine arts, modern Chinese painting is practically unknown to our people. Read about ten significant contemporary artists in China below.

Zhang Xiaogang

Zhang popularized Chinese painting with his recognizable works. So this contemporary artist became one of the most important in his homeland. famous painters. Once you see it, you too will never miss his unique family portraits from the Pedigree series. His unique style has amazed many collectors who are now buying up modern paintings Zhang for fabulous sums.

The themes of his works are the political and social realities of modern China, and Zhang, who survived the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966-1967, tries to convey his attitude to them on canvas.

You can see the artist's work on the official website: zhangxiaogang.org.

Zhao Wuchao

Zhao's homeland is the Chinese city of Hainan, where he received higher education specializing in Chinese painting. The most famous are the works that the modern artist devotes to nature: Chinese landscapes, images of animals and fish, flowers and birds.

Modern Zhao painting contains two different areas of Chinese fine art - these are the Lingnan and Shanghai schools. From the first, the Chinese artist retained dynamic strokes and bright colors in his works, and from the second - beauty in simplicity.

Zeng Fanzhi

This contemporary artist gained recognition in the 90s of the last century with his series of paintings called “Masks”. They feature eccentric, cartoon-like characters with white masks on their faces that confuse the viewer. At one time, one of the works in this series broke the record for the highest price ever sold at auction by a painting by a living Chinese artist - and this price was 9.7 million dollars in 2008.

"Self-portrait" (1996)

Triptych "Hospital" (1992)

Series "Masks". No. 3 (1997)

Series "Masks". No. 6 (1996)

Today, Zeng is one of the most successful artists in China. He also does not hide the fact that German expressionism and earlier periods of German art have a strong influence on his work.

Tian Haibo

Thus, this artist's contemporary painting pays tribute to traditional Chinese fine art, in which the image of fish is a symbol of prosperity and great wealth, as well as happiness - this word is pronounced in Chinese as "yu", and the word "fish" is pronounced in the same way.

Liu Ye

This contemporary artist is known for his colorful paintings and the figures of children and adults depicted on them, also made in the "childish" style. All of Liu Ye's works look very funny and cartoony, like illustrations for children's books, but despite all the external brightness, their content is rather melancholy.

Like many other contemporary Chinese artists, Liu was influenced by the Cultural Revolution in China, but he did not promote revolutionary ideas in his work and fight against power, but focused on conveying the inner psychological state of his characters. Some of the artist's modern paintings are written in the style of abstractionism.

Liu Xiaodong

Contemporary Chinese artist Liu Xiaodong paints realist paintings depicting people and places affected by China's rapid modernization.

Liu's modern painting gravitates toward small, once industrial cities around the world, where he tries to look for characters in his canvases. He draws many of his modern paintings based on scenes from life, which look quite bold, naturalistic and frank, but truthful. They depict ordinary people as they are.

Liu Xiaodong is considered the representative of the "new realism".

Yu Hong

episodes from his own Everyday life, childhood, the life of her family and her friends - this is what the contemporary artist Yu Hong has chosen as the main subjects of her paintings. However, do not rush to yawn, expecting to see boring self-portraits and family sketches.

Rather, they are some kind of vignettes and individual images from her experience and memories, which are captured on canvas in the form of a kind of collage and recreate general ideas about the past and present life of ordinary people in China. From this, Yu's work looks very unusual, both fresh and nostalgic at the same time.

Liu Maoshan

Contemporary artist Liu Maoshan presents Chinese painting in the landscape genre. He became famous at the age of twenty, having organized his own art exhibition in his hometown of Suzhou. Here he paints delightful Chinese landscapes, which harmoniously combine traditional Chinese painting, European classicism, and even contemporary impressionism.

Liu is now Vice President of the Academy of Chinese Painting in Suzhou, and his watercolor Chinese landscapes are in galleries and museums in the US, Hong Kong, Japan and other countries.

Fongwei Liu

The gifted and ambitious Fongwei Liu, a contemporary Chinese artist, moved to the United States in 2007 in pursuit of his art dreams, where he graduated from an art academy with a bachelor's degree. Then Liu participated in various competitions and exhibitions and received recognition in the circles of painters.

The Chinese artist claims that the inspiration for his works is life and nature itself. First of all, he seeks to convey the beauty that surrounds us at every step and lurks in the most ordinary things.

Most often he paints landscapes, portraits of women and still lifes. You can see them on the artist's blog at fongwei.blogspot.com.

Yue Minjun

In his paintings, the contemporary artist Yue Minjun tries to comprehend the significant moments in the history of China, its past and present. In fact, these works are self-portraits, where the artist depicts himself in a deliberately exaggerated, grotesque form, using the brightest color shades in the spirit of pop art. He paints in oils. On all canvases, the figures of the author are depicted with wide, even gaping smiles that look more creepy than comical.

It is easy to see that such an artistic movement as surrealism had a great influence on the artist's painting, although Yue himself is considered one of the innovators of the "cynical realism" genre. Now dozens of art critics and ordinary viewers are trying to unravel and interpret Yue's symbolic smile in their own way. Recognizability of style and originality played into the hands of Yue, who also became one of the most "expensive" Chinese artists of our time.

You can see the artist's work on the website: yueminjun.com.cn.

And in next video presents modern Chinese painting on silk, the authors of which are the artists Zhao Guojing, Wang Meifang and David Li:

In continuation of the article, we bring to your attention:

Take it, tell your friends!

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What names of modern Russian painting should be paid special attention to? What modern artist has created the most expensive among the paintings of living Russian authors? How well you are familiar with the domestic fine art of our time, find out from our article.

Sales of Chinese contemporary art beat all records at auctions, Sotheby's triples auctions of Asian contemporary art, exhibitions of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art are shown in museums around the world. St. Petersburg was no exception, where in September an exhibition of Chinese artists was held in the Loft Project "Etazhi". 365 magazine was interested in where such interest in contemporary Chinese art came from, and we decided to recall 7 key figures, without whom it would be completely different.

"Contemporary art" is opposed to traditional art. According to the famous critic, Wu Hong, the term "modern art" has a deep avant-garde meaning, usually denoting that various complex experiments take place in the traditional or orthodox system of painting. Indeed, contemporary Chinese art is now developing incredibly rapidly, competing with European art both culturally and economically.

Where did the whole phenomenon of modern Chinese art come from? In the early years of Mao Zedong's reign (since 1949), there was a rise in the arts, people hoped for a brighter future, but in reality there was total control. The most difficult times began with the onset of the “cultural revolution” (since 1966): art houses began to close. educational establishments and the artists themselves were persecuted. Rehabilitation began only after Mao's death. Artists joined in secret circles where they discussed alternative forms of art. The most vehement opponent of Maoism was the Zvezda group. It included Wang Keping, Ma Desheng, Huang Rui, Ai Weiwei and others. "Every artist is a small star," said one of the founders of the group, Ma Desheng, "and even the great artists in the universe are just small stars."

Of the artists of this group, Ai Weiwei is the most famous. In 2011, he even took first place in the list of the most influential people in the art industry. For some time the artist lived in the USA, but in 1993 he returned to China. There, in addition to creative work, he engaged in sharp criticism of the Chinese government. Ai Weiwei's art includes sculptural installations, video and photographic works. In his works, the artist uses traditional Chinese art in literally: he breaks ancient vases (Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995-2004), draws the Coca Cola logo on a vase (Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo, 1994). In addition to all this, Ai Weiwei has some very unusual projects. For 1001 readers of his blog, he paid for the trip to Kassel and documented this trip. Also bought 1001 Qing Dynasty chairs. The entire project, called Fairytale (“Fairy Tale”), could be seen in 2007 at the Documenta exhibition.

Ai Weiwei also has architectural projects: in 2006, the artist, in collaboration with architects, designed a mansion in upstate New York for collector Christopher Tsai.

The work of Zhang Xiaogang, a symbolist and surrealist artist, is interesting. The paintings in his series Bloodline (“Pedigree”) are predominantly monochromatic with splashes of bright color spots. These are stylized portraits of the Chinese, usually with big eyes(how not to remember Margaret Keane). The manner of these portraits is also reminiscent of family portraits of the 1950s and 1960s. This project is connected with memories of childhood, the artist was inspired by photographic portraits of his mother. The images in the paintings are mystical, they combine the ghosts of the past and the present. Zhang Xiaogang is not a politicized artist - he is primarily interested in the individuality of a person, psychological problems.

Jiang Fengqi is another successful artist. His work is very expressive. He dedicated the series "Hospital" to the relationship between patients and authorities. Other series of the artist also show his rather pessimistic view of the world.

The name of the exhibition in "Etazhy" is "Liberation of the present from the past". Artists rethink national traditions, use traditional, but also introduce new techniques. At the beginning of the exhibition, Jiang Jin's work Narcissus and Echo - Shall the water and wind do not remember. The work was made in the form of a triptych in 2014. The author uses the technique of ink on paper - sumi-e. The sumi-e technique originated in China during the Song Dynasty. This is a monochrome painting, similar to watercolor. Jiang Jin embodies the traditional plot: flowers, butterflies, mountains, figures of people by the river - everything is very harmonious.

Presented at the exhibition and video art. This is a work by Beijing-based video artist Wang Rui titled "Do you love me, do you love him?" (2013). The video lasts 15 minutes, on which hands stroke hands made of ice, it can be seen that their fingers are gradually melting. Perhaps the artist wanted to talk about the transience and fickleness of love? Or that love can melt an icy heart?

The work of Stephen Wong Lo “Flying over the Earth”, made in the technique of appliqué, is reminiscent of color scheme images from the films of Wong Kar-Wai.

Definitely, the stars of the exhibition are two sculptures by Mu Boyan. His sculptures are grotesque, they depict very fat people. Problem excess weight interested the artist in 2005, after which he was inspired to create these sculptures. They are reminiscent of both enlightened Buddhist monks and modern people with the problem of being overweight. Sculptures "Tough" (2015) and "Come on!" (2015) are made in the technique of colored resin. In these works, the sculptor depicts rather than even adults, but babies.

Whether modern Chinese artists were able to free themselves from the past is up to the viewer to decide, but the connection between generations can be clearly seen in their works, and it becomes clear that it is not so easy to get away from the past. This confirms the use of the sumi-e technique, as well as installations that involve ancient artifacts. Until now, contemporary Chinese artists have not freed themselves from the influence of Maoism, the protest and memory of which is still present in their work. Artists stylize their works under the times of Maoism; memories of the past can, as, for example, on the canvases of Zhang Xiaogang, be key in the artist's work. The restless Ai Weiwei invents more and more performances, but he also turns to traditional culture. Chinese art has always been, is and will have something to surprise the viewer - its legacy is endless, and new representatives will continue to find inspiration in Chinese traditions.

Text: Anna Kozheurova

Since we have already begun to get acquainted with contemporary art in China, I thought it would be appropriate to quote one good article by a friend of mine who is researching this issue.

Olga Merekina: "Contemporary Chinese Art: 30-Year Path from Socialism to Capitalism. Part I"

Zeng Fanzhi's "A Man jn Melancholy" sold at Christie's for $1.3 million in November 2010

Perhaps, at first glance, the use of economic terms in relation to art, especially Chinese, may seem strange. But, in fact, they more accurately reflect the processes by which China in 2010 became the largest art market in the world. Back in 2007, when it overtook France for third place on the podium of the largest art markets, the world was surprised. But when, three years later, China overtook the UK and the US, the market leaders for the past fifty years, to become the world's top art seller, the global art community was shocked. It's hard to believe, but Beijing is currently the second largest art market after New York: $2.3 billion in turnover versus $2.7 billion. But let's look at everything in order.

Art of New China

Poster from the late 50s - an example of socialist realism

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Celestial Empire was in deep crisis. Although, since the end of the 19th century, a group of reformers have been trying to modernize the country, which at that time was helpless before the onslaught of foreign expansion. But only after the revolution of 1911 and the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty, changes in the economic, socio-political and cultural spheres began to gain momentum.

Previously, European visual art had practically no influence on Chinese traditional painting (and other areas of art). Although at the turn of the century some artists were educated abroad, more often in Japan, and in a few art schools even taught classical western drawing.

But only at the dawn of a new century did a new era begin in Chinese world art: various groups appeared, new trends were formed, galleries were opened, exhibitions were held. In general, the processes in Chinese art of that time largely repeated the Western path (although the question of the correctness of the choice was constantly raised). Especially with the beginning of the Japanese occupation in 1937, among Chinese artists, the return to traditional art became a kind of manifestation of patriotism. Although at the same time absolutely Western forms of fine art were spreading, like a poster and a caricature.

After 1949, the first years of Mao Zedong's rise to power also saw a cultural upsurge. It was a time of hope for a better life and the future prosperity of the country. But this was soon quickly replaced by total control over creativity by the state. And the eternal dispute between Western modernism and Chinese guohua was replaced by socialist realism, a gift from the Big Brother - the Soviet Union.

But in 1966, even harsher times came for Chinese artists: the Cultural Revolution. As a result of this political campaign, initiated by Mao Zedong, studies in art academies were suspended, all specialized magazines were closed, 90% were persecuted famous artists and professors, and the manifestation creative individuality became one of the counter-revolutionary bourgeois ideas. It was the Cultural Revolution that in the future had a huge impact on the development of contemporary art in China and contributed to the birth of even several artistic movements.

After the death of the Great Pilot and the official end of the Cultural Revolution in 1977, the rehabilitation of artists began, art schools and academies opened their doors, where streams of those wishing to receive academic art education have resumed their activities printed editions, which published works by contemporary Western and Japanese artists, as well as classical chinese paintings. This moment marked the birth of contemporary art and the art market in China.

Through the thorns to the stars"

Cry of the People, Ma Desheng, 1979

When at the end of September 1979 in the park opposite the "temple of proletarian art", the National Museum of Art of the People's Republic of China, an unofficial exhibition of artists was dispersed, no one could even imagine that this event would be considered the beginning of a new era in Chinese art. But a decade later, the work of the Zvezdy group will become the main part of the retrospective exhibition dedicated to Chinese art after the Cultural Revolution.

As early as 1973, many young artists began to secretly band together and discuss alternative forms of artistic expression, drawing inspiration from the work of Western modernism. The very first exhibitions of unofficial art associations took place in 1979. But neither the exhibition of the "April" group, nor the "Nameless Community" dealt with political issues. The works of the Stars group (Wang Keping, Ma Desheng, Huang Rui, Ai Weiwei and others) fiercely attacked the Maoist ideology. In addition to claiming the artist's right to individuality, they denied the "art for art's sake" theory that was prevalent in artistic and academic circles during the Ming and Qing dynasties. "Every artist is a small star," said one of the founders of the group, Ma Desheng, "and even the great artists in the universe are just small stars." They believed that the artist and his work should be closely connected with society, should reflect its pains and joys, and not try to avoid the difficulties and social struggles.

But in addition to the avant-garde artists who openly opposed the authorities, after the Cultural Revolution, new trends also emerged in Chinese academic art, based on the critical realism and humanistic ideas of Chinese literature of the early 20th century: "Scars" (Scar Art) and "Soil" ( Native Soil). The place of the heroes of socialist realism in the work of the "Scars" group was taken by the victims of the Cultural Revolution, the "lost generation" (Cheng Conglin). "Soilers" were looking for their heroes in the provinces, among small nationalities and ordinary Chinese (Tibetan series by Chen Danqing, "Father" Lo Zhongli). Adherents of critical realism remained within official institutions and tended to avoid open conflict with the authorities, focusing more on technique and the aesthetic appeal of the work.

The Chinese artists of this generation, born in the late 40s and early 50s, personally experienced all the hardships of the Cultural Revolution: many of them were exiled to rural areas as students. The memory from the harsh times became the basis of their work, radical like the "Stars" or sentimental like the "Scars" and "Soilers".

New wave 1985

Largely due to the small breeze of freedom that blew with the beginning of economic reforms in the late 70s, often informal communities of artists and creative intelligentsia began to be created in cities. Some of them have gone too far in their political discussions - even to the point of categorically speaking against the party. The government's response to this spread of Western liberal ideas was the political campaign of 1983-84, which was aimed at combating every manifestation of "bourgeois culture", from eroticism to existentialism.

China's arts community responded with a proliferation of informal art groups (estimated at over 80), collectively known as the 1985 New Wave Movement. The participants of these numerous creative associations, different in their views and theoretical approaches, were young artists, often just leaving the walls of art academies. Among this new movement were the Northern Community, the Pond Association, and the Dadaists from Xiamen.

And although critics differ in regard to various groups, most of them agree that it was a modernist movement that sought to restore humanistic and rationalist ideas in national consciousness. According to the participants, this movement was a kind of continuation of the historical process that began in the first decades of the 20th century and was interrupted in the middle of it. This generation, born in the late 50s and educated in the early 80s, also experienced cultural revolution, however, at a less mature age. But their memories did not serve as a basis for creativity, but rather allowed them to accept Western modernist philosophy.

Movement, mass character, the desire for unity determined the state of the artistic environment in the 80s. Mass campaigns, declared goals and a common enemy have been actively used since the 50s by the Chinese Communist Party. The New Wave, although it declared goals opposite to those of the party, in many ways resembled the political campaigns of the government in its activities: with all the variety of artistic groups and directions, their activities were motivated by socio-political goals.

The culmination of the development of the New Wave 1985 movement was the China / Avant-Garde exhibition (China / Avant-garde), which opened in February 1989. The idea to organize an exhibition of contemporary art in Beijing was first expressed back in 1986 at a meeting of avant-garde artists in the city of Zhuhai. But only three years later this idea was realized. True, the exhibition was held in an atmosphere of strong social tension, which, three months later, resulted in well-known events on Tiananmen Square, well known to foreign readers. On the opening day of the exhibition, due to the shooting in the hall, which was part of the performance of the young artist, the authorities suspended the exhibition, and its re-opening took place a few days later. "China / Avant-Garde" has become a kind of "point of no return" of the avant-garde era in Chinese contemporary art. Already six months later, the authorities tightened control in all spheres of society, suspended the growing liberalization, and put an end to the development of openly politicized art movements.