Contemporary Chinese art started to blossom in the Eighties after the opening up of China. Socialist Realism had dominated culture during the Mao era, often reducing it to popular political propaganda.

Immediately after the opening up, artists demanded artistic freedom and started to experiment. By the middle of the Eighties, groups of artists had sprung up all over China and heated discussions were held about which new direction to take. The 1989 China/Avant-garde exhibition used the no-U-turn traffic sign as a symbol for the show, signifying a ‘point of no return’.

At the beginning of the Nineties, a number of Chinese artists started to produce artwork that reflected the transition of Chinese society and the critical atmosphere after 1989. Mao Zedong became a widely used icon in their artistic language. The symbols of Cultural Revolution art were used in combination with capitalist symbols like famous brands or money. Their style, reminiscent of Western Pop Art, was coined Political Pop (zhengzhi bopu). Other Chinese artists used a cynical artistic language in what became known as Cynical Realism (wanshi xianshi zhuyi). The work created by these artists was warmly welcomed in the West. An intensive interaction between the Western perception of China and the ‘dissidence’ displayed in these works, led to a rapid internationalization of contemporary Chinese art.

Chinese artists who had left China in the Eighties became part of the art establishment in the West over the years. Upon their return to China ten to fifteen years later they were the people in control of the art scene in China, together with Western art collectors.

Inside China today however, artists and art critics alike strongly react against what they call ‘the colonization of contemporary Chinese art’ and they claim that the situation of curators is changing. Fascinating evolutions are taking place in this area. With the rise of China, ‘Chineseness’ is a hot topic.

ChinaConduct researches, advises, and assists in all kinds of artistic projects related to China.
––