MCLC: materials on contemporary Chinese art ()

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: florian wagner <Florian.Wagner at phil.stud.uni-erlangen.de>
Subject: materials on contemporary Chinese art
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I recently finished my graduation thesis on the topic of contemporary
Chinese art (with its title roughly being translated to "Art Criticism in
contemporary China: Discourses – Media – Participants"). In my necessarily
kind of humble approach as a student of Chinese studies I nevertheless
tried to give an overview on the (huge!) Chinese discourse on contemporary
Chinese art, focusing mainly on art magazines in terms of media and the
art critic in terms of art world participant.

I felt like I might be able to add some more (hopefully not already
mentioned) sources:

Wu Hung and Peggy Wang's "Chinese Contemporary Art: Primary Documents" by
Moma is in my opinion an amazing chronological overview with a widespread
collection of primary texts. Wu Hung was mentioned already, but I felt
like I should list this book explicitly.

Jörg Huber and Zhou Chuan's (eds.) "A New Thoughtfulness in Contemporary
China – Critical Voices in Art and Aesthetics" collects some really
interesting essays on the self-awareness of contemporary Chinese art,
including, for example, the question about whether "contemporary Chinese
art" or "Chinese contemporary art" is a proper expression.

Köppel-Yang, Martina (2003): Semiotic Warfare: a Semiotic Analysis – the
Chinese Avant Garde, 1979 - 1989. Hong Kong: Timezone 8 is an amazing
book, as well! Martina Köppel-Yang deeply inspired me to reflect on the
scope and reach of contemporary Chinese art today and its implications on
Chinese society. She also recently published a great article on the
relations between contemporary Chinese Art and Chinese politics in regards
to "现代意识" and "三个代表", but I think it is only available in German:
Köppel-Yang, Martina (2011): „An den Grenzen des Modernen Bewusstseins, im
Gefolge des Dreifachen Vertretens – Gratwanderungen zwischen offizieller
und individueller Utopie, zwischen Assimilation und Autonomie“. In: Köhn,
Stefan/Schimmelpfennig, Michael (Hrsg.): China, Japan und das Andere:
Ostasiatische Identitäten im Zeitalter des Transkulturellen. Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz.

Jia, Fangzhou 贾方舟 (eds.): Piping de shidai: 20 shijimo Zhongguo meishu
piping wencui 批评的时代：20世纪末中国美术批评文萃. Nanning: Guangxi Meishu
Chubanshe. This 
3 volume publication is a collection of articles and essays by
contemporary Chinese art critics of all generations and provided me with
fruitful information on the most diverse topics imaginable.

Chen, Rongyi 陈荣义 (2010): Kuilu: xinyidai pipingjia lun Zhongguo dangdai
yishu 逵路：新一代批评家论中国当代艺术. Changsha: Hunan Meishu Chubanshe has
the same approach as a collection of art critics' essays, but focuses
strongly on the newest and youngest generation and their more or less
"avant-garde" point of view on the not so very avant-garde art in China
these days.

Zhang, Xiaoling 张晓凌 (2010): 消费主义时代中国社会的文化寓言 : 中国当代艺术
考察报告 Xiaofei zhuyi shidai Zhongguo shehui de wenhua yuyan: Zhongguo
dangdai yishu kaocha baogao Changchun: 吉林美术出版社 Jilin mei shu chu ban
she. 
This book provides some interesting (and sometimes arguable) views on the
topic of self-identity in contemporary Chinese art.

In regards to magazines I would also like to highly recommend
Canada/Taiwan based English magazine Yishu. The aforementioned "艺术界 Leap"
is one of my absolute favorites when it comes to Chinese art magazines, it
has a stunning layout, international approach and doesn't over-focus on
art markets and auctioning like 90% of the other Chinese art magazines.
Like "Yishu" it is distributed internationally. There is also an art
magazine called "艺术 ISSUE" originally coming from Korea that provides a
more "inter-asian" view on Contemporary Chinese Art, with their chief
editors coming from Korea, Japan, Taiwan and PRC. And there is also "画刊",
the former "江苏画刊" of the 80's still alive today and in its own way
spanning over a long period of art world observation in China.

I hope I was able to help out a little bit and would also love to hear
about more sources. Lots of the websites you were mentioning I haven't
heard of before. Thank you for that!

By the way: This is my first post here on MCLC, although I'm subscribed to
it since quite some time by now. I wanted to greatly thank you for this
amazing source on contemporary China, I really appreciate it a lot! If I
had been more brave to ask a question about sources on Contemporary
Chinese Art before my graduation thesis, it would have helped me out a
tremendous amount. So, note to myself: next time bravely dig in this
amazing pool of knowledge on contemporary China!

All the best wishes from Germany,

Florian Wagner