How Has Contemporary Chinese Art Been Influenced by the West?
WESTERN GAZE FINAL DRAFT 2
HOW FAR HAS THE WEST INFLUENCED THE CONTEMPORY CHINESE ARTISTS Wang Qingsong, Zeng Fanzhi, Shi Xinning, and Zhang Xiaogang?
“Why do I say China has no contempory Art? Because none of China’s C art comes from China’s history or culture. It just follows the Western conception of what Chinese contempory art should be like” Lu Lib
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
I am interested in contemporary art in China because I live in Hong Kong, and have witnessed huge changes in China both internally and within the global context, and I want to explore the impact of this on artistic development. On a visual level, I know that artwork I have seen exhibited in galleries has changed dramatically, and I want to find out in what specific ways Chinese artists have been influenced, and by what. For example, contemporary artists have been accused of ignoring their history and culture in their desire to provide art for the western market. I want to know why artists became more commercial and in what way western consumerism affected artists and their art.
In this project I set out to find the answer to a number of questions:
How and why did art begin to change in China from the 80’s to the 90’s? I expect that Tiananman Square was a watershed in creative freedom and political and social change.
How has the social and political change over the last two decades affected artists and been expressed in contemporary art? I think possibly the artists, like the wider population, have become obsessed with the West, and therefore their art focuses on Western issues and neglects Chinese culture and social issues. On the other hand, we had many protests relating to jailed activists in Hong Kong after 1990, and I wondered how much freedom there was for artists to explore what was happening and how society viewed it.
What has the role of the west been in terms of appropriation, influence, and visual reference? I anticipate that the West has become the major
HOW FAR HAS THE WEST INFLUENCED THE CONTEMPORY CHINESE ARTISTS Wang Qingsong, Zeng Fanzhi, Shi Xinning, and Zhang Xiaogang?
“Why do I say China has no contempory Art? Because none of China’s C art comes from China’s history or culture. It just follows the Western conception of what Chinese contempory art should be like” Lu Lib
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
I am interested in contemporary art in China because I live in Hong Kong, and have witnessed huge changes in China both internally and within the global context, and I want to explore the impact of this on artistic development. On a visual level, I know that artwork I have seen exhibited in galleries has changed dramatically, and I want to find out in what specific ways Chinese artists have been influenced, and by what. For example, contemporary artists have been accused of ignoring their history and culture in their desire to provide art for the western market. I want to know why artists became more commercial and in what way western consumerism affected artists and their art.
In this project I set out to find the answer to a number of questions:
How and why did art begin to change in China from the 80’s to the 90’s? I expect that Tiananman Square was a watershed in creative freedom and political and social change.
How has the social and political change over the last two decades affected artists and been expressed in contemporary art? I think possibly the artists, like the wider population, have become obsessed with the West, and therefore their art focuses on Western issues and neglects Chinese culture and social issues. On the other hand, we had many protests relating to jailed activists in Hong Kong after 1990, and I wondered how much freedom there was for artists to explore what was happening and how society viewed it.
What has the role of the west been in terms of appropriation, influence, and visual reference? I anticipate that the West has become the major