1997.07.20 – 1997.10.10

Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongju, Korea

Curator: Fei Dawei

Preface

This exhibition does not attempt to show the overall picture of recent Chinese art, but rather to introduce some of the work of the young generation of Chinese contemporary artists. Though these works are but a small sample of the whole of Chinese art, in the context of history, they are well worth paying attention to. This is the first generation of Chinese contemporary artists. Their work not only chronicles the greatly changing style of Chinese art over the last ten years, but will also influence the future of Chinese art. This influence cannot be ignored.

There are a multitude of Chinese artists who are currently engaged in contemporary art at home and abroad. Of these artists, I have chosen some of the most active artists of the last ten years. I hope this exhibition will offer a basic framework for future exchange and communication. Though this framework one can see the main characteristics and the basic situation of contemporary Chinese art. We regret that a few artists were unable to take part in this exhibition due to scheduling and logistical reasons. The current trend of installation art and artists working ‘on location’ has become a very important style and language that is characteristic of-Chinese contemporary art. For this reason, much of the important work cannot be preserved after international exhibitions. But this time, following the suggestions of Sonje Museum. For this reason, the construction of this exhibition is different from that of other exhibitions of Chinese Contemporary Art in other countries. When I selected the artists, 1did not attempt to integrate their styles. Instead, I have tried to allow the selections to showcase the different styles, tensions and contrasts between the individual works. This is neither an exhibition based around one particular theme, nor a collection of individual personal exhibition. Rather, this exhibition necessarily reflects the style of each individual artist. The juxtaposition of these different options, languages and styles bring light to the deep commonality of culture. This commonality of culture is particularly Chinese, but it is also shared by the world.

Even though post twentieth century modern artists have attempted to make their work transcend the social environment, the practice of modern art history has proved a close relationship between art and society’s conception of art. Without this structure, the attempt to transcend of reality would be pointless. Art is part of reality. Thus, these limits come not only from the outside but also from within art itself, art history and art criticism. Real creation of art can neither be realized at a special place within reality nor in some illusionary place removed from the social environment. Instead, the creation of genuine art is a sort of＇passing through’ of these limits. Only during the process of this ‘passing through’ can one understand the meaning of the existence of art and its necessity. Chinese contemporary art has its own special background that is distinct from that of art in Korea and other Asia countries. Most of the artists in this exhibition were born in the nineteen fifties and sixties. They experienced China’s Cultural Revolution and many other important historical events. During the nineteen eighties, when Chinese society was in the midst of the great period of change called the ‘reformation and opening, these artists plugged in, created, and joined the new cultural movement. In addition, as Chinese Contemporary Art is getting more international exposure, its characteristics and methods are greatly changing. We have titled this exhibition “In Between Limits in the hopes that Koreans pay special attention to the relationship of Chinese contemporary art to its environment. In order for the viewer to understand the work in this exhibition, it is necessary to briefly recall the course that contemporary Chinese art has followed over the past ten years. Until the end of the seventies, China’s circles have been in a state of total isolation from the outside world. At that time our knowledge of Western art history extended only through the period before Impressionism In art circles, the ruling model was soviet “Social Realism’. According to this model, the job of the artists was to explain and propagate government policy according to the slogan Art serves politics. “Toward the end of the seventies, this strict isolationist policy began to ease up and the slogan “Art serves politics” was formally abandoned. The new generation of young artists was eager to find a language of art and idealism and a period of “reformation and opening” ensured. A radical avant-garde movement swept through China’s circles in the eighties.

From the beginning of the avant-garde movement in eighties, Chinese contemporary art experienced three main periods: from approximately nineteen eighty to eighty-five was a period of preparation; eighty-five to eighty-nine was the peak; and in nineteen ninety began a period of scattering and maturation. The main thrust of this later period was an attempt to separate from a model of sole realism in order that Chinese art could both absorb nourishment from its own traditional culture and communicate effectively with the outside world.

Chinese society started to enter the period of reformation and opening around 1979. In 1980, culture circles in Beijing, Shanghai and some other big cities appeared to ‘unfreeze’. Artists began to organize some spontaneous small scale exhibitions and a trend of autonomy and pluralism was formed. During this time, a group called ‘Star Drawing Group’ caused a sensation. They started embracing abstract form and bravely commented on the sensitive political problems of the time. However, information from the outside was stills care and the trend of “thought liberation” has not yet unfolded. Thus, at this time the art ethic still stayed at a level of formality and baptism.

The nineteen eighties was a very special period in Chinese history. During this time China was becoming a comparatively open and relaxed society; the high-handed policies were easing up and the time of high pressure had not yet come. This interval gave a major stage to an idealistic culture full of fantasy. The “New Art Movement” achieved its peak in 1985. For this reason it has been called the “85 Fine Art Movement”（or”’85 Movement” or “New Fine Art Trend”) . This movement was not limited to a few big cities; it spread throughout the country. Everywhere new groups were cropping up, radical declarations were being spoken, and new exhibitions were being held. The scales were becoming bigger and bigger. “modern Art was the main topic of conversation in all of these art circle meetings. The art magazines were glutted with articles about Modern Art and some people even made special magazines for the sole purpose of discussing the problems of art theory. In 1989,a Beijing political event deeply influenced the development of Chinese society. Along with this event, the avant-garde movement which had been so full of native passion and idealistic colors proclaimed its end as a “movement”, As group activities swiftly reduced in number, a tendency towards personal activities began to strengthen. Two new phenomenon appeared against the background of the contemporary. First, mercantilism spread throughout China as people’s interest were attracted by economic activity. China’s economy looked extremely hopeful. Due to the energy of Chinese economic circles that was being felt around the world, many art collectors came from Hong Kong and Taiwan and began to take an active role in mainland China. These businessmen became increasingly important to Chinese art production. Secondly, although the changes for contemporary artists to publish or exhibit their work in China had been comparatively reduced, they were increasingly getting in touch with art organizations abroad. Along with this communication came an increasing chance of exhibiting work abroad. Thus, some artists began to show themselves on the international stage. These Chinese artists living at home and elsewhere who were frequently exhibiting their work in the West became a sort of phenomenon that could not be ignored in international art circles.

During the nineteen nineties the progress of the contemporary art in China was full of dramatic factors. From ninety-one to ninety three, in many exhibitions that were held abroad, ‘cynic realism’ and “political pop art” got public attention. These two schools inherited the ideal of the criticism of realism that characteristic of the avant-garde movement of the eighties. With the cynical attitude and simple imagery, they vented their own complex feelings toward the radical changes of the times. Their work achieved quick and striking success in Hong Kong’s art market. But this success, which had been some overstated, could not be sustained. Actually, it compelled the artists to go to the other extreme and use methods of idealism and installation to lash out against ‘cynic realism’ and ‘political pop art’. This tactic finally proved effective in 1994. In 1994,many young artists plunged into an ‘installation upsurge. This trend attracted the attention of the critic’s circle. Few of the ‘cynic realist’ artists also gave up painting and turned to installation and performance art. In 1994, an art critic named Wang Lin began to organize a major exhibition of Chinese contemporary art entitled “Installation, Environmental and Performance Art”. He did this in order to declare that a new trend had taken center stage and to demonstrate the scale this trend within China. However, the trend of installation art lacked very strong theoretical support and did not fit into the reality of the social condition. For this reason, it did not fully surpass the level of the movements of the eighties and it was very shortly lived. When it destroyed the two other fashionable painting trends, it disappeared as a popular movement.

After nineteen ninety-five there was no singular trend that took the lead in China’s contemporary art circle and there was no one event that caused a sensation. The antagonism between ‘painting’ and installation’ began to rise above the static remnants. In an increasingly mercantilized China, artists became a marginalized social group. These artists set a fixed distance to control the relationship of language and thought. In this new atmosphere, artistic confidence was built on the foundation of a common vision of their more pluralistic and fragmented society.

Alternatively, artists who had moved abroad at the end of the eighties had started again in their new environments. After the nineties these artists became objects of much attention in international art circles. Their work proves that not only can Chinese artists communicate with the world of Western art, but that they are also members of an international movement of contemporary art. Through their different culture they not only tried to consciously expose some of the problems that Western art cannot or does not touch upon, but they also used a critical spirit to deal with the basic problems of art and advanced their own opinions. From an administrative level, they are offering new content and future to the pluralism of contemporary art. The working methods of the artists in this exhibition can be divided into three groups. Huang Young-Ping, Gu Wen-Da, Cai Guo-Qiang, Chen Zhen and Xu Bing all create in the language of installation. Each has lived abroad for about seven to ten years. Of these, Huang Yong-Ping, Gu Wen-Da, and Xu Bing are three of the artists most representative of the Chinese avant-garde movement of the eighties. Their work uses much metaphor and symbolism to communicate their thoughts on the important contemporary problems of culture, society, politics, and race. Zhang Pei-Li and Feng Meng-Bo work in the medium of video and computer art. From their work we do not see that they have a partiality toward technology. Rather, they prefer to use simple, objective methods to illustrate their inspection of the human situation. Yan Pei-Ming, Ding Yi, and Yang Jie-Chang are painters, however, they exhibit a totally fresh attitude. Before he got into museums, Yan Pei-Ming was a portrait artist who worked in the streets. He insists on using the portrait as his motif out of a belief that the human face is are liable way to delve deeply into a human being’ s cultural life. In this exhibition he shows his latest attempt at landscape painting’. Ding Yi uses painting as a pure expression of spirituality. He adopts the simplest form of the “+” (cross) and repeats this motif endlessly on the canvas. Through this repetition, he experiences an ideal state which is similar to sitting in deep meditation. Yang Jie-Chang’s work is extremely similar to that of Ding Yi in that he also repeats singular movements on canvas. However, he does not use an image, but rather scrawls with Chinese ink. In this case, painting is not simply the original “painting” itself but it turns into a part of life; it can be shown in another form at any time. Yang has practiced Buddhism in Chan-Zong Zen Temple for two years. He believes that art work is a method to escape reason and logic and search for ‘the true me’

This is the first time that a Chinese contemporary art exhibition of this magnitude has been shown in Korea. l would like to offer my sincere thanks to the head of Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art and to all of the staff who have worked so hard for this exhibition. I also hope that this exhibit will offer some contribution to cultural exchange, in the future.

Fei Dawei

In Between Limits, An Aspect of Chinese Contemporary Art

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