Continuum Generation by Generation: The representation of Chinese traditions at the China Pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-366
Author(s):  
Ornella De Nigris
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Chinese Tradition ◽  
Contemporary Chinese Art ◽  
Continuum Generation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Venice Biennale

Abstract This article focuses on the China pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale as a case study. The theme of the pavilion, Continuum ‐ Generation by Generation, revolved around the long history of Chinese tradition and offered a visual re-elaboration of it by means of contemporary art and folk art. The works exhibited drew on Chinese mythology, masterpieces of Chinese art history, philosophical concepts and handcraft traditions, hence presenting a variegated image of (contemporary) Chinese art. This exhibition offers opportunities for a critical reading of the relationship between contemporary art and tradition implied by the theme Continuum, and I will explore the narrative and curatorial discourse it presented to the audience.

scholarly journals Contemporary Chinese art: Mao's legacy and Danto's definition

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-200
Author(s):  
Wiseman Bittner
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Contemporary Chinese Art ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
The Way

In this paper I am going to do three things: First, identify several themes in contemporary Chinese art that show its essentially social nature and its robust materialism. Second, suggest a way that contemporary art in China is post-modern in the way that Western art is and claim, moreover, that as different as the themes and recent history of this art are from contemporary Western art, the works satisfy a definition of art constructed by Arthur Danto. Finally, in a coda, I present the work of a woman artist that is unlike most recent Chinese and Western art. It positions itself at the far reaches of what art in China is and what Danto's definition allows at the same time that it suggests both the interiority of the practice of art and one way of being a woman.

scholarly journals The Wasteland of Creative Production: A Case Study of Contemporary Chinese Art

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Alexander Ulfstjerne
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Paradigmatic Shift ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Contemporary Chinese Art ◽  
Cultural Sphere ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

With the new magnitude for the relatively unhindered production and circulation of artworks, galleries and contemporary art museums are burgeoning across the larger cities of China. This article provides an empirical example of how contemporary and avant-garde art is produced and valuated in the art communities that thrive on the recent international recognition of Chinese artworks. It addresses some of the effects that occur when art production becomes mediated by cultural entrepreneurs and propelled by resourceful investors. Challenging notions of autonomy and independence in the sphere of aesthetics and contemporary art, the article addresses some of the ways in which art becomes co-opted, not only by commercial agents, but also by official ambitions. The commercialization of the cultural sphere reveals a paradigmatic shift, giving a stronger emphasis to the intangible notion of creativity as a new driving force for economic development in China.

Biennialization-as-banalization, promotion, and resistance

Above Sea ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 96-116
Author(s):  
Jenny Lin
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
First Century ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Global Expansion ◽  
Contemporary Chinese Art ◽  
Global Positioning ◽  
Current Concerns ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

Chapter Three investigates the turn of the twenty-first century global expansion of Shanghai’s contemporary art vis-à-vis the first international iteration of China’s premier contemporary art event, the Chinese Communist Party-sponsored 2000 Shanghai. The chapter theorizes biennialization-as-banalization vis-à-vis contemporary exhibition practices and the promotion of contemporary Chinese art. The chapter argues that Shanghai Biennial’s curators’ hopes of harnessing the spirit of Shanghai were ultimately supplanted by a generic brand of global contemporary art that neglected the city’s unique historical features and current concerns. This chapter then examines critical responses to the 2000 Shanghai Biennial and critiques of the global positioning of Shanghai’s contemporary art as seen in Ai Weiwei and Feng Boyi’s counter-exhibition “Fuck Off,” and in two related works by artists Zhou Tiehai and Yang Fudong.

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