XU BING. Celestial Book: Mirror for Analyzing the World, 1988.
READING: Chinese Avant-Garde Art
HISTORY:
People's Republic of China--1949-present
Republic of China--1949-present
TIME LINE: 1993
Nelson Mandela won Nobel Peace Prize
Schinder's List won Oscar as best picture
NOTES: What is avant-garde about these works?
Chinese Avant-Garde Art (1978-present)
Yu Youhan painted With Love, Whitney with familiar images: the revolutionary leader Mao Zidong and American popular singer Whitney Houston. (fig. XX) Mao is shown applauding one of his own principles; Whitney applauds her own music. Both were copie
d from existing photographs in acrylic on canvas and were meant to draw attention to the similarity between personalities and public image created by each. The painter has created many pictures with similar politically charged themes drawing on the style
of presentation common to American Pop artists such Andy Wharhol. The Chinese call this style Political Pop. It is painted by an artist who considers himself to be part of the "Avant-garde Movement", a movement created by a few young artists who were
influenced by ideas about their responsibility to society. Their ideas have had a strong effect on the Chinese art world of the most recent period.
This movement was possible only after the Cultural Revolution was over (1977-1987) and is based on a commitment of certain artists declaring their individuality. Ordinary though that may seem in relation to western European cultures, this was comple
tely new and remarkable in China in the 1970Õs. They used the notion of ÒhumanismÓ to refer to concepts of human freedom or individualism. For example, the Stars Group who advocated criticism of society and called for an awakening of human nature were t
he most controversial in the early years of the movement. When they were excluded from the National Art Gallery Exhibition in Beijing in 1979, they exhibited their works on a fence outside. The authorities immediately shut down their exhibit--the
response of the Stars Group was to demonstrate for individual human rights in the streets of Beijing.
The Avant-garde Movement includes artists who have an independent vision of their own work and they articulate it. These artists are at the edge of society and are part of the intellectual culture, not the official or popular culture. Their goal wa
s to make way for freedom of spirit and expression in a society that, through its official strictures and internal social mechanisms, did not allow for original thought. From 1979 to 1989, these artists thought that art could change society and make it f
ree. Their art was politically motivated and critical. By attacking and destroying the traditional order in the art world, they thought that they could lead the way to freedom.
Some of these artists took a long view of culture and did not limit their thoughts to social concerns or problems, and most of their work is conceptual and philosophical. Some emphasized that life is instinct, others that is accommodation. All oppo
sed a society which suppressed human nature and praised a pure and simple life. This lead some to depict rural life, life among the many ethnic minorities in China or to descriptions of erotic and sexual encounters.
In Mirror for Analyzing the World Xu Bing emphasized other concepts. (fig. XXX) Under the influence of Chan Buddhist thought, he fabricated two thousand characters that noone could read, even though they look like traditional Chinese characters. He
then used traditional printing techniques to produce long scrolls and books. According to his intrepretation of Chan thought, what is important is the laborious artistic process. The work of art is useless in itself. His process of creation, he
thought, was similar to the mindless diligence of Chan Buddhist labor which was thought to empty the mind of useless knowledge and lead to enlightenment. His installations were thought of as extravagant and evoked a nihilist, absurdist and tragic feelings acco
rding to the critics.
After the Tiananmen Massacre on June 4, 1989, and the crushing of the "Democracy Movement" by the Chinese Government, avant-garde art changed. Zhang Peili, an artist working in Hangzhou said at that time:
Before the Massacre, there was so much noise,
a deafening roar of protest.
Then the tanks came and everyone immediately fell silent.
That silence was more terrifying than the tanks.
After the Massacre, the socially critical side of the avant-garde movement could not be expressed directly for displays of avant-garde art were banned and the visual and performing arts were not used to express the artists' thoughts as seriously as b
efore. Artists no longer thought that their individual works could change society, but rather they began to write that they thought that art could make artists free, and to be free was no small matter.
Since 1989 and government attacks on intellectual culture, the movement has weakened. With the increasing emphasis of immediate economic benefits of any activity, both official and popular culture have common priorities that are significantly differ
ent from those of the intellectuals. Artists today confront the twin challenges of a commodified society and an entrenched art world. With the suppression of Chinese critics, critical recognition and intellectual culture, the artists lost their most imp
ortant audiences. Many of the most prolific avant-garde artists are now living and working outside of the PRC and those working inside, exhibit and sell their work abroad.
The idealism of the previous period gave way to ironic playfulness of the sort found in Yu Youhan's With Love, Whitney. This sort of Political Pop is not shown in China but has become very popular outside of the PRC in Chinese communities in Hong Ko
ng, Taiwan and Singapore, for example, and has many buyers in the west. This particular painting, for instance, is part of the collection of the China Club, a private club in Hong Kong.
Another expression which found adherents after the Massacre is the New Analysts Group who decided to suppress individuality. They do not sign their works, but set rules for its execution which they vote on and follow as a group. They consider the r
ules more important than the group. This approach has resonance in legalist society in China's past, except that belonging to the New Analysts Group is voluntary. In the work presented here, symbols and numbers are said to best convey the groups' ideas.
The complex formulas used to execute these diagrams and charts are thought to express the interrelationship among group members. The deliberately arcane absolutism becomes a playful critique of the Chinese principle of conformity, delivered in a most s
erious way. These works are quite distinctive and outside of previous Chinese artistic idioms.
Many of these recent avant-garde paintings and installations transcend the level of psychological and personal feelings of the earlier period to make more universalist statements. They have the potential to be dangerous to the old artistic culture i
n China because they seek to create a viable alternative to the older art. Whether they shall ever replace the status quo is yet to be seen. Chinese art styles in the twentieth century rest on three legs: traditional brush painting; realism imported fro
m the west in the beginning of the twentieth century from Europe and the former Soviet Union; and the international language of contemporary twentieth century art. This art appropriates from all of these traditions and is part of the global
context of the 1980s and 1990s.
