Visual Culture in Communist China

HUNG, CHANG-TAI. Mao’s New World. CORNELL University Press, 2017.

This book mentions the Monument to The People’s Heroes many times. There is a chapter dedicated to the monument. The meaning of the monument is described in great detail and its impact on the new Communist state of China. However the book in its entirety is about how Mao transformed China into its propaganda state. This book will be very helpful for me because it provides me with the before and after of the monument and how it impacted the state as a whole.

Hung, Wu. Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

This book goes into detail of when Mao refused to build a new capital for China and instead maintain the ancient city. He was responsible for the transformation of socialism in Beijing, China. This book goes into great detail of Tiananmen Square and it’s correlation with socialism. This book will be helpful because I am comparing the entire monument and the bas-reliefs surrounding the People’s Heroes Monument to socialism in China.

Hyer, Eric A., and Dodge Billingsley. “Art & Politics in Mao’s China.” Kennedy Center. https://kennedy.byu.edu/art-politics-in-maos-china/.

This website/article talks about the influence and impact the Chinese government had on art. It also talks about whether art can be maintained when you have a socialist government. Although this doesn’t directly mention the People’s Heroes Monument, this will be helpful for my exhibition because I am looking to compare the People’s Heroes Monument to socialism and in what ways it follows the ideologies of socialism.

Hung, Chang-Tai. “Research Report. Revolutionary History in Stone: The Making of a Chinese National Monument.” The China Quarterly 166 (2001)

This journal talks directly about the monument and the political symbol of Tiananmen Square. It talks about the influence and impact of creating such monuments and the power associated with architecture. This journal will be helpful because it will help me see the power involved in such structures and it’s involvement to socialism.

Zhang Xiaogang is a contemporary Chinese artist who is best known for his surrealist style portraits. Starting from the early 1990’s, the artist painted a series of portraits which were inspired by family photos during the cultural revolution; this critically acclaimed series was called “Bloodline”. The “Bloodline” series marked Zhang Xiaogang’s maturity as an artist and he was able to incorporate many of his childhood experiences into this series. The traumatic experiences of growing up during the cultural revolution is reflected within this series. Zhang Xiangang’s parents were both sent to study campus in remote countryside of China, making him emotionally distant from his family. Even after the cultural revolution, he never had a close relationship with his father and his mother suffered from mental illness. The idea of sharing an intimate personal moment or emotion is an avant-garde idea and a distant departure from the socialist realist art of Mao era. Many of Zhang Xiaogang’s contemporaries also grew up during the turbulent era of the cultural revolution and have many oppressed emotions for them to share with the world. The Bloodline series acts as a brief historical lesson for the viewers who are interested in arts and the artists that emerge during the late 20^th century. The core idea of this exhibition will focus on the Bloodline series and its representation of family dynamic and the power of visual imagery to express emotions and memories that were been oppressed.

Zhang Xiaogang’s elder brother with their parents, on the occasion of his 100th Day Celebration. Black and white photography. Image source: phillips.com (https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/family-photo-30d7f1a9-106e-4026-b47e-43debf499e42_s600x0_q80_noupscale.jpg)

Zhang Xiaogang. Bloodline: Big Family No.9, Oil on Canvas. 1996. Image source: phillips.com (https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_LotDetailMainImage/v1525968834/auctions/HK010318/12_001.jpg)

Bibliography

“Cultural Revolution, 50 Years on – the Pain, Passion and Power Struggle That Shaped China Today.” South China Morning Post. Accessed February 08, 2019. http://multimedia.scmp.com/cultural-revolution/.

Huang, N. “Locating Family Portraits: Everyday Images from 1970s China.” Positions: Asia Critique18, no. 3 (2010): 671-93. doi:10.1215/10679847-2010-018.

“Zhang Xiaogang: In Conversation.” Phillips. Accessed February 08, 2019. https://www.phillips.com/article/32296875/zhang-xiaogang-in-conversation.

I have chosen to use this name for my exhibit because of the contention surrounding Ai in China. Because he is a political activist, shedding light on different aspects of corruption in China through his art, the Chinese government is not fond of him. He has been beaten, detained, censored, surveilled, and had his studio demolished by the government because of his art.

His growing up during the Cultural Revolution certainly had an impact on Ai’s future artistic endeavors (Ai 2017). From 1983 to 1993, he lived in New York City, attending Parsons School of Design and gaining immense inspiration for projects unthinkable in hyper-censored China. Ai remarked that New York City’s creative and progressive atmosphere influenced him to create a great deal of art and inspired him to begin projects that engaged the public (Ai 2017).

Ai is a multi-faceted artist who utilizes a variety of different media to convey his societal commentary. Though he has delved into sculpture, large-scale installation, architecture, digital art, public-engagement projects, music, and film, for my exhibition I will focus on his photography.

Ai has exhibited silver gelatin prints, digital photos, and even images taken on a cell phone. Like his other work, his photographs are representations of his controversial messages to society. In his project Study of Perspective, on which he worked for approximately 22 years, Ai traveled and photographed himself giving the middle finger to some of the world’s most important landmarks. Just a few of the locations Ai photographed are the Sydney Opera House, Tiananmen Square, the Eiffel Tower, Trump Tower, and the Colosseum. The series is a comment on tourism and the tendency of society to blindly follow norms. Ai’s goal in creating this project was to encourage viewers to question their compliance with establishments and institutions deemed as significant by society. In this project, viewers can clearly see Ai’s dissent from the norm.

Ai Weiwei. “Study of Perspective – White House” 1995-2003. MoMA Collection.
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/117097?artist_id=34722&locale=en&page=1&sov_referrer=artist

References

“Ai Weiwei Gives World His Middle Finger.” Public Delivery. January 04, 2019. Accessed February 07, 2019. https://publicdelivery.org/ai-weiwei-study-of-perspective/#Study_of_perspective_in_Asia.

“Ai Weiwei: Artist and Human Rights Champion.” Ai Weiwei. Bloomberg Markets and Finance. YouTube. May 30, 2017. Accessed February 07, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8QAjQ1GS2U.

Guo-Qiang in front of his work
Photo by Yvonne Zhao, courtesy Cai Studio

Though Cai Guo-Qiang has become well known over the years for his multimedia art pieces, and his critiques on Chinese wars, he, like any artist, had to start somewhere, and for him it was by creating paintings that reflected themes of traditional Chinese artwork, but by using gunpowder instead of paint. “Cai Guo-Qiang says his favorite artistic moment is the pregnant pause between the lighting of the fuse and the detonation of the gunpowder. “There is a pressure in it to be preserved, and then it explodes,” he says. “This moment belongs just to the artist and the work.” (The Pyrotechnic Imagination, The New York Times) Cai first began to use gunpowder while he was home in Quanzhou. He kept up with this and continued exploring the effects of gunpowder while he lived in Japan until 1995. The most interesting fact about his use of gunpowder is that it was what lead him to what he is most commonly known for today, which is the work he does with explosives. Cai does not only use the gunpowder as a way to add themes of destruction and war to his images, he also uses it as a way to work with performance art, buy igniting the gunpowder in front of his audiences to create a different style of painting that will leave a lasting impression. This being said, my exhibition will focus in on the earliest works of Cai Guo-Qiang, those where he uses the gunpowder, to showcase where he started before he developed into the artist who he is today. These pieces are also iconic in the discussion of Mao, Chinese warfare, and other more traditional pieces of art that he attempts to embody in a unique way.

Bibliography:

“Artist’s Bio.” Bon Voyage: 10,000 Collectables from the Airport | Cai Guo-Qiang, www.caiguoqiang.com/artists-bio.

Kenney, Nancy. “Cai Guo-Qiang’s Explosive Art, Preserved for the Ages.” The Art Newspaper, The Art Newspaper, 21 Dec. 2018, www.theartnewspaper.com/news/cai-guo-qiang-s-explosive-art-preserved-for-the-ages.

Lubow, Arthur. “The Pyrotechnic Imagination.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Feb. 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/magazine/17Fireworks-t.html.

Li Keran, Jinggang Mountain, ink on paper, http://www.artnet.com/artists/li-keran/jinggang-mountain-0l7D2a_EBsUSKqVle7wywQ2

Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise, oil on canvas, 1872, Musee Marmottan Monet, https://www.claude-monet.com/impression-sunrise.jsp

Zhang Zeduan, Along the River During the QingMing Festival, The Palace Museum,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Along_the_River_During_the_Qingming_Festival

My exhibition will showcase Li Keran’s unique style of painting. Li mixed traditional Chinese art with Western schools such as impressionism, expressionism, and realism.  Li mixes the two in multiple ways, painting traditional Chinese landscapes with oil and canvas or painting western influenced pieces with ink and paper. An example of the latter is Dresden at Dusk, which was the subject of my visual analysis. Li started painting in the 1920s and was introduced to Western painting styles in art school. He was not a communist and worked briefly for the Nationalist government as an artist during the war. He was heavily criticized during the Cultral Revolution, both because of his association with the Nationalists and his painting style. He was not as active as he was previously during the revolution, although he did continue to paint despite the criticism. His unique style later had a resurgence of popularity, unfortunately he could not see this come to pass as he died in 1989.

The exhibition will contain both works by Li Keran and works by other artists. Li’s paintings will be the main focus, with western paintings on one side and traditional Chinese paintings on the other. The paintings selected will be a spectrum of Li’s work, ranging from traditional styles, to a combination of the two, and finally paintings more Western in style. By putting the two styles that are combined in Li’s work side by side, the exhibition will hopefully extenuate the use of both in the paintings. I hope that viewers will be able to see the subtle influences that each style had on Li’s paintings and how he brings them together. The paintings will be hung plainly, allowing the viewers to focus solely on the paintings and pay attention to the style of each. The exhibition will showcase how Li pushed the bounds of traditional Chinese art while still remaining loyal to its core idea.

Bibliography:

Hawks, Shelley Drake. The Art of Resistance: Painting by Candlelight in Mao’s China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017.

Sullivan, Michael. Art and Artists of Twentieth Century China. Berkley: University of California Press, 1996.

• Hawks, Shelley Drake. The Art of Resistance: Painting by Candlelight in Mao’s China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017.

A book about artists during the Cultural Revolution who were labelled as “counterrevolutionary”. The book not only looks at the art made by the artists but their lives and how they endured the criticism and struggles of the Cultural Revolution. This book provides insight into Li Keran’s art as well as political motivations.

• Andrews, Julia. Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China: 1949-1979. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995.

This book looks at art during the most repressive time in China in the 20^th century. It discusses which art was accepted and which was criticized. The book also explains the politics and history of the time.

• Galikowski, Maria. Arts and Politics in China: 1949-1984. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1998.

This book discusses the interaction of ideology and art in China during the peak years of Communist doctrine. Like the previous two books, it is politically charged. The discussion looks at the effect ideology had on art and how it changed the way art was made and looked at.

• Sullivan, Michael. Art and Artists of Twentieth Century China. Berkley: University of California Press, 1996.

This book is less focused on the politics in China during the 20^th century and more focused on the art. It looks especially at the influences Western styles had on traditional Chinese art and the ramification of the clash between the two.

Figure 1. Beijing Yonghe Palace. Oil painting on canvas. Image sources: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_14b3d4d590102ycin.html

Figure 2. “Nude”. Oil painting on canvas. Image sources: http://www.bestchinanews.com/History/6756.html

Figure 3. “Nine Xi Eighteen Jian(九溪十八涧)”. Ink and paper. Image sources: https://image.baidu.com/search/detail?ct=503316480&z=0&ipn=d&word=%E5%88%98%E6%B5%B7%E7%B2%9F%20%E4%B9%9D%E6%BA%AA%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E6%B6%A7&step_word=&hs=0&pn=0&spn=0&di=99791596300&pi=0&rn=1&tn=baiduimagedetail&is=0%2C0&istype=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&in=&cl=2&lm=-1&st=undefined&cs=1360172828%2C1903176811&os=3377012756%2C3725381755&simid=3345463547%2C275901279&adpicid=0&lpn=0&ln=1868&fr=&fmq=1549554374042_R&fm=&ic=undefined&s=undefined&hd=undefined&latest=undefined&copyright=undefined&se=&sme=&tab=0&width=undefined&height=undefined&face=undefined&ist=&jit=&cg=&bdtype=0&oriquery=&objurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimg2.scimg.cn%2Fuserupload%2Fyz%2Fitem%2F1835%2F800x800%2F049643079a897e32ce72a3aa0.jpg&fromurl=ippr_z2C%24qAzdH3FAzdH3Fyz_z%26e3Bfffv_z%26e3BvgAzdH3Ftg1jxAzdH3Ftpj4%3Ft1%3D8a9acn9&gsm=0&rpstart=0&rpnum=0&islist=&querylist=&force=undefined

Figure 4. “Mount Huang.” Oil painting on canvas. Image sources: https://image.baidu.com/search/detail?ct=503316480&z=0&ipn=d&word=%E5%88%98%E6%B5%B7%E7%B2%9F%20%E9%BB%84%E5%B1%B1&step_word=&hs=0&pn=0&spn=0&di=12394937830&pi=0&rn=1&tn=baiduimagedetail&is=0%2C0&istype=2&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&in=&cl=2&lm=-1&st=-1&cs=2015401022%2C4031801979&os=249663734%2C3345674939&simid=4228623963%2C633724599&adpicid=0&lpn=0&ln=1883&fr=&fmq=1549554513526_R&fm=result&ic=&s=undefined&hd=&latest=&copyright=&se=&sme=&tab=0&width=&height=&face=undefined&ist=&jit=&cg=&bdtype=0&oriquery=&objurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimg4.artfoxlive.com%2FuploadFile%2FproductImg%2F201607%2Fl%2F1468586731091_275749_origin.jpg&fromurl=ippr_z2C%24qAzdH3FAzdH3Fooo_z%26e3Bw6pu5xstej_z%26e3Bv54AzdH3Fr6517vpAzdH3Fd0c09l_z%26e3Bip4s&gsm=0&rpstart=0&rpnum=0&islist=&querylist=&force=undefined

Liu Haisu was born in Changzhou. He went to Shanghai to study oil painting when he was 14. From then on, he started his entire life “betraying” the traditional Chinese art. Instead of traditional Chinese painting, he learned a lot about oil painting, which is a western painting style. The first picture is an example of his early oil painting. Its style is very similar to western oil painting, and he portraited a famous palace in Beijing. He then established the Shanghai School of Fine Arts. This is his second things of “betrayal” to traditional Chinese art. He had a class of painting the nude bodies of live people. They paid a lot to those male models at first. In 1920, he first invited female models into the classroom. The second painting is his drawing on the nude female model. However, the whole society went against him. People all regarded him as the traitor in Chinese art. He was then wanted for not stopping the sketching class on nude bodies. French offered help to him. He, at the same time, gained support from Liang Qichao, Kang Youwei, and Cai Yuanpei which were the leader in the New Culture Movement. He went to Japan to see the masterpiece from Matisse and van Gogh which were the representatives of the western modernism style. In 1929, his teacher, Cai Yuanpei, wanted to turn the turn Shanghai School of Fine Arts into a national college. He sent Liu Haisu to Europe to study the western style more thoroughly. This was his third “betrayal” to traditional Chinese art.
The third picture was drawn when he was in Europe. He also gained an award for this painting. After the liberation of China, Liu Haisu became the principal of Nanjing University of Arts. However, Liu Haisu did not have excellent interpersonal relationships. He was banned in the Cultural Revolution. However, he did not stop his creation. After the Cultural Revolution, he did his forth “betrayal” to Chinese traditional arts. He combined western modernism style with traditional Chinese style. Only a few people have tried the combination before. Liu Haisu is the leader. The fourth picture is his painting of Mount Huang. He used lots of bright color in his painting instead of just dark colors in the traditional Shan Shui painting. His “betrayal” has led Chinese traditional art into a new era where all kinds of ideas are added into the traditional painting and offered Chinese art a bright future.

Huang Yong Ping in 1985. Working on his Roulette Wheel series.

Exhibition Title:

Huang Yong Ping: Inspirational Avant Garde Artist

This is a working title, but I thought of it because I want to touch on several different political views that Huang Yong Ping has, and portrays in his work. I figured this title leaves it a bit open for me to be able to talk about his ideas between modern and tradition china, authoritative figures, and his view on animal welfare.

Exhibition Essay:

Huang Yong Ping has been creating artwork since the early 1980’s. His artwork is said to have gone through four major categories; anti-artistic affectation, anti-self-expression, anti-art, and anti-history. Throughout all of these periods, he challenges specific views that are shown in his artwork. In his works regarding anti-expression, between 1986-1988, Huang Yong Ping did a roulette series, which was artwork done on a roulette wheel. The purpose of this was to go against any impulses the artist has, and ultimately the artist has no say in what the painting turns out to be. The wheel did all of the work based on movements that were assigned in the beginning. The work could not be controlled or directly expressed through what the artist wanted. All of the work happens by chance. In 1987, Huang Yong Ping expressed the anti-history and anti art aspect. This was created when he put two books in the washing machine, and when he took them out he just put the pulp together onto a piece of broken glass held up by a wooden trunk. The two books represented traditional, and modern china, and he wanted to erase the differences and unknown between these two time periods of china. There was a lot of denial during this time period of the two times and he wanted to get rid of that by forming the two together symbolically creating a mesh of both traditional and modern ideas and culture. The reason why this fits into the category of anti art as well is because it challenges the traditional view of what artwork is supposed to look like and be perceived as. This theme is important to understand 20th century china is because during that time there were so many different political views, especially portrayed in artwork. Huang Yong Ping’s work is very helpful in understanding eastern and western culture, and the prominent political views at the time and how they were challenged.

Bibliography

Kao, Ming-Lu, and Norman Bryson. Inside out: New Chinese Art. Univ. of California Press,1998.

Image Source: Li, Yu-Chieh, and 黄永砯 Huang Yong Ping. “Book Washer, Shaman, and Bug Keeper: A Conversation with Huang Yong Ping, Part II.” Voices of Dissent: Art in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1976 to 1989 | Post, post.at.moma.org/content_items/592-book-washer-shaman-and-bug-keeper-a-conversation-with-huang-yong-ping-part-ii.

“Rewriting Example 1: When You Have No Cane, I Will Take It Away. When You Have One, I Will Give You One. – Zen Boddhism(1).” L.H.O.O.Q., www.toutfait.com/issues/volume2/issue_5/interviews/ping/ping.html.

https://www.ft.com/content/c506d5f8-1fde-11e3-8861-00144feab7de

This link is very insightful as it touches on various aspects of Zeng Fanzhi’s life and creative career. In this interview we’re able to see the evolution of Zeng throughout his lifetime, from his social realist works to his shift towards traditional Chinese painting. We learn about his upbringing, hardships, drives, influences and the transformation of the art market. I also found this video where Zeng talks about his process, technique and particularly his Mask Series, which I find really fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=46&v=oP7bqXBMApE

This is a link to a youtube video from the IFA gallery interviewing Zhang Dali about art and censorship in China. He sits on a couch, legs crossed, smoking a cigarette in the gallery. The interview begins with the artist describing his thoughts on what art is. He says, “For me, the most important thing about art is life. The second is imagination. The third are dreams.” (Zhang Dali) The video continues to discuss the boundaries of art and the potential moral dilemas. He does not draw the line at the law, but rather at any physical violence or discomfort of the viewer. He also touched on the different roles that many people play that influence this between the gallery owner, curator etc… Ultimately he does not believe these boundaries belong in the hands of anyone, bur rather that the art will exist and effect people individually.