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The new cultural identity – Chinese contemporary art exhibition

The new cultural identity – Chinese contemporary art exhibition, Sydney, Australia China Cultural Center 2014 

On June 11th 2014 at 5:30 pm, “The New Cultural Identity”, Chinese contemporary art exhibition will open at Sydney’s Chinese Cultural Center.

The exhibition well knowed for touring four countries of East Europe last years with the goal to show the world the creativity of the Chinese contemporary art scene will open again in Australia, the works on display are from 23 modern and creative Chinese artists.

This exhibition is organised by Sydney Chinese Cultural Center, sponsored by the Beijing Gallery Association, the Culture Ministry of People’s Republic of China, and the Chinese Embassy in Australia as well as the Chinese Consulate in Australia.

From the 1990 Chinese born curator Xin Dong Cheng has for a decade promoted chinese contamporary art abroad, for the first time in France since then he kept promoting chinese contemporary art through international exhibition such as the 2007 “Chinese contemporary art” exhibition at the Russian Tretyakov National Gallery, in 2008 the “Beijing – Athens, Chinese contemporary art exhibition” in the Greek national contemporary art center, in 2009 at Cuba’s national museum with the “Beijing-Havana, chinese contemporary art exhibition and in 2012 at the Taipei Sung Shan. In 2013 the exhibition toured 4 Eastern European country: Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Serbia.

Exhibition Info

New Cultural Identity — an Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art introduces 23 avant-garde artists, all of whom are exploring “the self” through their artisticpractice. Evenifthedifferentexperiencestheyhadduringchildhood place them in different generations, the age gap between these artists is not what’simportant. Throughtheirdistinctartisticvisions,however,theyeach explore China’s new cultural identity in a global context.

In the early 20th century, the 1919 May Fourth student movement and its tendency toward a “New Tradition” seemed to turn its back on the conventional mainstream of the old Academy – things like goldfish, bamboo, peonies and even the clouds-and-mist quality of traditional Chinese landscape painting. Many art students, meanwhile, went abroad to Europe and the United States, later returning to paint in oil on canvas with a whole new repertoire of techniques andmaterials. Butthetrendturnedouttoberathershort-livedasitoccurred during turbulent times. With the arrival of the New Revolution, a whole new artistic school of thought gained predominance. Introduced to China by the Soviet Union, “Social Realism” would take root and provide the paradigm for art education practice at academies around the country, an influence that quickly generatedthenewfaceofChineseart. Aimingtoservethemasses,thenewart gave expression to those many lives who had never previously been the subject of art: workers, farmers and soldiers transformed into the chief protagonists ofthenewstyle. Propagandaart,however,wouldprovetohaveitsownaesthetic merit.

By the end of the 1970s, as China opened to the world, artists would resume their rather delayed relationship with Western contemporary art. Quietly popularized in art magazines and exhibition catalogs outside China, the country’s young college students discovered the numerous art trends that had developed intheWestoverthecourseoftheprevioushalf-century. In1979,asmallgroup of adherents entered this brave new world with the opening of an exhibition in Beijing known as the “Stars Movement”. From that point on, under the banner of contemporary art, two art movements emerged in a delineation that applies right up to the present day. One of the schools, the “Traditional School”, maintains the use of classical materials and techniques, such as the roll-up scrollsandbalancedcompositionsoflandscapepainting. Asecondschool,one that grew directly out of the “Stars Movement”, could more appropriately be labeled as the “contemporary art’s new avant-garde”.

Taken as a breath of fresh air on the international circuit, Chinese artists were increasingly included in artistic exchanges. A critical moment of recognition came at the end of the century when, in 1999, more than twenty Chinese artistsattractedwidespreadattentionattheVeniceBiennale. Inlightofthe artists’ individualistic explorations, the world saw China emerge with a fresh face with features strangely dissimilar from what the world was used to seeing. Meanwhile, Chinese society was experiencing a rush of complex emotions: viewing its own past with nostalgia along with the pain that necessarily accompanied that nostalgia, Chinese society was rediscovering its own greatness with a pronouncedsenseofpride. Caughtupinthecompetitivenessofthemomentwhile looking toward a future riddled with questions, China was making the leap into amodern,globalizedworld. Artists,meanwhile,setouttoexpressthiscomplex bundle of emotions with a renewed sense of poetry and a fresh approach to color.

Artists

Budi, Feng Zhengjie, Fang Lijun, Luan Xiaojie, Wen Qiu, Shi jianmin, Gao Yu, Gao Huijun, Huang Yan, Jin Defeng, Luo Brothers, Li yongbin, Wang ningde, Wang Guangyi, Weng Fen, Wei Guangqing, Yang Xun, Yan Yinhong, Yu jie, Zhu Wei, Zhao Ling, Xue Song,

  • A new identity(2)

    A new identity(2)