Thomas Berghuis, Cees Hendrikse, Francesca Dal Lago, Sabine Wang and Eduardo Welsh

Writing on the Wall
Chinese New Realism and Avant-Garde in the Eighties and Nineties

Design: Rudo Menge / Perfect binding / Illustrated (colour) / 152 pages / Size: 23 x 29 cm
English edition / ISBN 978-90-5662-542-9 / € 29.50
Dutch edition / ISBN 978-90-5662-138-4

In association with the Groninger Museum, Groningen

Exhibition from 23 March to 26 October 2008 at the Groninger Museum.

The death of Mao Zedong in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution and a relative increase in freedoms. This volume considers the art produced in China from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. Art from this period is also known as avant-garde art and represents the beginnings of Chinese modern art. Knowledge of this avant-garde art is crucial to understanding the Chinese art world of today.

Shortly after Mao's death, art continued in part in the tradition of the official realism propagated by the state, though it became more socially engaged in its subject matter. After 1989, art was characterized by, among other things, a cynical attitude towards the political, economic and social systems that had emerged in the recent past. The palpable influence of the West, manifest in, for example, the pointed references to Western consumer society, is one component of the quest for a new Chinese identity.

This volume offers an art-historical overview of the period, investigating a selection of works by about 25 important artists, including Huang Yong Ping, Wang Kepin, Huan Rui, Ma Desheng, Luo Zhongli, Fang Lijun, Zhang Xiaogang, Chen Danqing, Ai Xuan and He Duoling.

In their essays, authors Eduardo Welsh, Francesca Dal Lago and Thomas Berghuis describe the backdrop to this period, drawing a distinction between the 1980s (with special consideration for the Nameless Painting Society, an underground artists' organization during the Cultural Revolution) and the 1990s, when performance art occupied an important place.