Published on the occasion of the largest exhibition of contemporary art from China ever mounted in North America, organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World explores recent experimental art from 1989 to 2008, arguably the most transformative period of modern Chinese and recent world history. Featuring over 150 iconic and lesser-known artworks by more than 70 artists and collectives, this catalog offers an interpretative survey of Chinese experimental art framed by the geopolitical dynamics attending the end of the Cold War, the spread of globalization and the rise of China. Critical essays explore how Chinese artists have been both agents and skeptics of China’s arrival as a global presence, while an extensive entry section offers detailed analysis on works made in a broad range of experimental mediums, including film and video, ink, installation, land art and performance, as well as painting and photography. Featured artists include Ai Weiwei, Big Tail Elephant Group, Cai Guo-Qiang, Cao Fei, Chen Zhen, Chen Chieh-jen, Ding Yi, Geng Jianyi, Huang Yong Ping, Kan Xuan, Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Libreria Borges, Liu Wei, Liu Xiaodong, New Measurement Group, Ou Ning, Ellen Pau, Qiu Zhijie, Shen Yuan, Song Dong, Wang Guangyi, Wang Jianwei, Yan Lei, Yang Jiechang, Yu Hong, Xijing Men, Xu Bing, Zeng Fanzhi, Zhang Peili, Zhang Hongtu, Zhang Xiaogang and Zhou Tiehai. An appendix includes a selected history of contemporary art exhibitions in China, artist biographies and a bibliography.
Alexandra Munroe is Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art and Senior Advisor of Global Arts at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Alexandra Munroe is a pioneering authority on modern and contemporary Asian art and transnational art studies. Philip Tinari is Director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing. At the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Tinari oversees an exhibition program devoted to established and emerging artists both Chinese and international, aimed at UCCA's annual public of more than half a million visitors. Hou Hanru is Artistic Director of MAXXI, National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome. A prolific writer and curator based in Rome, Paris and San Francisco, Hou Hanru is the artistic director of MAXXI, National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome. Educated at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in the 1980s, Hou moved to France in 1990, and after a period as an independent curator and critic, he became director of exhibitions and public programs and chair of exhibition and museum studies at the San Francisco Art Institute (2006–12). Katherine Grube is Lecturer at George Washington University. Lu Mingjun is Associate Professor of Art History at Art College, Sichuan University. Stephanie Tung is Associate Curator of Exhibitions and Research at the Peabody Essex Museum. Anthony Yung is Senior Researcher at Asia Art Archive, specializing in China's related research projects. Xiaorui Zhu-Nowell is Assistant Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. |
