Contemporary Chinese Art: A Critical History [Paperback]

Since the confirmation of Deng Xiaopings policy of Opening and Reform in 1978, the Peoples Republic of China has undergone a liberalization of culture that has led to the production of numerous forms of avant-garde, experimental, and museum-based art. With a fast-growing international market and a thriving artistic community, contemporary Chinese art is riding a wave of prosperity, though issues of censorship still abound. Shedding light on the current art scene, Paul Gladstons?Contemporary Chinese Art?puts Chinas recent artistic output into the context of the wider cultural, economic, and political conditions that surround it.
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Providing a critical mapping of ideas and practices that have shaped the development of Chinese art, Gladston shows how these combine to bind it to the structure of power and state both within and outside of China. Focusing principally on art produced by artists from mainland Chinaincluding painting, film, video, photography, and performancehe also discusses art created in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and diasporic communities. Illustrated with 150 images,?Contemporary Chinese Art?unravels the complexities of politics, artistic practice, and culture in play in Chinas art scene.

Paul Gladstonis the Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art at the University of New South Wales in Sydney the former editor of theJournal of Contemporary Chinese Art.He is the author ofContemporary Art in Shanghai: Conversations with Seven Chinese Artists; 'Avant-garde' Art Groups in China, 1979-1989; andDeconstructing Contemporary Chinese Art: Selected Critical Writings and Conversations.