By He Jianwei
Without the limits of themes and materials,is there really a difference between Eastand West in contemporary art? Art critic Gao Minglu suggests a new concept, “Yi Pai,”to define contemporary Chinese art: a spirit separate from traditional Chinese art and modern art in the West.
A collection of 200 pieces from 78 artists at the Today Art Museum defines Yi Pai. “It is a way of thinking. If the viewer feels the piece is contemporary, but also recognizes its Chinese spirit, then I achieved my goal,”
Gao says.
Yi Pai: Century Thinking showcases paintings, sculptures, installations, buildings and videos created during the past three decades. Most works are dark and earthy, and highly conceptual and often feature abstract content that begs further explanation.
These initial observations present an immediate contrast to the visual aesthetics of artists commonly associated with what the international scene considers contemporary Chinese art.
Each work’s title card is placed at ground level, forcing viewers to really look at the work itself before awkwardly bending down to read the artist’s name and title.
In terms of local displays, this is a particularly refreshing one of art in the context of contemporary art in China.It indicates that the audience embraces the ambitious attempt to utilize critical theory and to ponder the production
of art.
Yi Pai is “a subversive theory against representation and is a new way of thinking, one which transcends realism, modernism and postmodern conceptualism,” Gao says. He adapts literary theory to describe an art movement
specic to Chinese culture.
Gao rst proposed Yi Pai in 2007 when he curated an exhibition of 30 years of Chinese abstract art in Spain. Only a fourth of the works exhibited in 2007 were
modern, and most of those were paintings.
Gao says the concept evolved from his experience.As a critic, he probes the relationship between art and Chinese culture.
Before he became involved in contemporary art, Gao studied traditional Chinese paintings from the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties. His emphasis
was the painter Zhao Mengfu, a prince of Song descent and a Chinese scholar, painter and calligrapher during the Yuan Dynasty.
“In Song Dynasty, many artists attempted to represent three-dimensional objects and to master the illusion of space, but Zhao’s abandoned any attempt at representing reality,” he says.
Zhao’s rejection of the rened, gentle brushwork of his era in favor of the cruder eighth century style may have started the revolution that led to modern Chinese landscape painting.
In the 1980s, China was in the throes of the modern art movement, triggered by art groups like Stars Group and Anonymous Painting Group. It peaked with the ’85 New Wave Movement, which produced many great artists, art groups and exhibitions. The period climaxed at the China/Avant-Garde in 1989.
“After the Cultural Revolution, Scar literature was pervasive.It appeared in modern art as portraits of suffering intellectuals. I wrote to oppose these realistic works, because it is useless to complain about the reality,” Gao says.
In the 1990s, Chinese modern art began to focus on “the spiritual experience of the artist in the process of creation as self-contemplation outside and beyond the artwork itself,” Gao says.
For instance, the artists Li Huasheng and Zhu Xiaohe drew subjects of their daily life using the techniques of Western abstract art.
“These artists pay more attention to creation, to the uncertainty of meaning and to instability. Meaning is not reected directly in a work, because they believe that what is in the artist’s mind at the time of creation may not
necessarily appear in his work,” he says.
But the real reason he coined the new concept was to seek out the difference in thinking between Chinese and Western artists. Although the materials and techniques the artists use are borrowed from Western culture,“modern Chinese art has a unique characteristic which makes it different from that produced by other cultures.”
He said the difference between Chinese and Western modern art is not in the themes or materials. “It is easy to recognize a piece by an American artist if the piece is about racial discrimination. But if the artist’s theme is something
like globalization or environmental protection, how can you tell? That is the core issue I want to discuss,” he says.
Gao studied in the US through the 1990s and was granted his PhD by Harvard University in 1999. After 30 years observing modern art in both China and the US, he says Western artists prefer to decode everything and pursue accuracy, while Chinese artists approximate and focus on integrity.
This is easier to understand in the translation eld. “The difference in thinking is also reected in translation. For example, Pizza Hut’s name just means a place that sells pizza, but in Chinese it becomes ‘Bi Sheng Ke,’ which means invincible,” he says.
Turning Chinese phrases back into English is the same.“In Chinese, we say ‘Wan Li (10,000 miles) Changcheng,’ but in English the translation would include the exact length in kilometers,” he says.
Although globalization has imbued many younger Chinese people with messages from the West, Gao insists their work still reects a uniquely Chinese way of thinking.
“Maybe our architecture has become Western style, but you can still nd traditional culture in daily life. There are many ancient relics in our cities, and students still learn from the poems and essays of ancient dynasties,” he says.
In the past three decades, when people discussed or studied Chinese-made modern art, they did so by using Western art theory. “It’s time for us to make our own theory. If we want to tell the story of Chinese modern art, we should
(From left to right) Utopia Home, by He Xiangyu, Imprison, by Qin Yufen, Rocket I & II, by Xiao Lu
Ship, by Mao Tongqiang
“It is easy to recognize a piece by an American artist if the piece is about racial discrimination. But if the artist’s theme is something like globalization or environmental protection, how canyou tell?”
“These artists pay more attention to creation, to the uncertainty of meaning and to instability. Meaning is not reected directly in a work, because they believe that what is in the artist’s mind at the time of creation may not necessarily appear in his work.”
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