Chinese modern art needs to evolve

WHAT is modern art?

What is its significance in contemporary China ?

In what way can it be gradually accepted and understood by the masses of people?

For 15 years, these questions have been puzzling Zhu Qingsheng, a Chinese art theorist and artist who was a major participant and advocator in China's '85 New Art Wave, an influential modern artistic movement in the mid-1980s.

Zhu, 42, also known as LaoZhu in Europe, is currently an associate professor of art theory at the newly established art studies department at Beijing University (Beida), which is becoming another important art research centre in China.

Formerly an oil painting major, he graduated from Nanjing Normal University in his home province of Jiangsu. Zhu received his master's degree in art history from the Central Academy of Fine Arts where he taught for some time before moving to teach at Beida. Sponsored by the university, he continued his doctorate studies in Germany and received a doctorate degree in art history from the world-famous Heidelberg University in 1995.

Art professionals today often use the term "contemporary art" to describe cutting-edge schools of art, the vanguard Zhu seems to be quite "laid-back" by sticking to "modern art," believing that "contemporary" refers more to time than artistic style.

Modern art, according Zhu, is needed in contemporary Chinese society which is in the process of modernization, experiencing an unprecedented reform and opening-up drive.
"It can largely stimulate the creativity of Chinese people in building up a national soul," Zhu told China Daily in a recent interview.

"Chinese modern art is distinctive in its experimental value, despite the fact that it is derived from China's artistic traditions," he said.

This experimental spirit of modern art, Zhu said, is especially necessary in current Chinese society where it is flooded with mediocre art that purely imitates or aimlessly follows artistic traditions, lacking originality and pertinence.

According to Zhu, modern art is also an important channel for China to participate and compete in the contemporary world art stage and raise its cultural status in a global context.

"Anyway, traditional art is only one side of the coin of Chinese art," he said.

Enthusiastically promoting modern art, Zhu, however, is unsatisfied with the artistic level of Chinese modern art, saying "it still waits to be perfected with further maturity."

Looking back to the '85 New Art Wave, which is extensively featured in a recent retrospective exhibition "Inside Out: New Chinese Art" in the United States, Zhu confessed that the type of modern art advocated in the movement has limited artistic value. "It imitated Western modern art too much in the hope of breaking the conventional shackles in Chinese art at that time."

"Unless it stops copying the West, Chinese modern art will not reach the essence of art, being unable to touch the problems in the life of Chinese people and the Chinese culture itself. Such modern art would only be a temporary cultural phenomenon, rather than a method applicable in China's modernization."

Out of this consideration, Zhu, who is well known for his research on Western art, has in recent years concentrated on theoretical research and creation of experimental art, hoping to establish a theoretical system for Chinese modern art.

"That is more meaningful than to recklessly follow Western modern art modes as we used to," he stressed.

It has been a fact that China's modern art in the past basically followed the suit of Western modern art theories. Some curators, both from China and the West, organize exhibitions of Chinese modern art simply according to Western points of view, hoping to meet the taste of Westerners.

As a result, Zhu said, there have been few factual demonstrations of Chinese modern art, in the West at least.

"Modern art means far more than politics and sex. There are many more possibilities that expands the spiritual domain of a human being,"Zhu said, criticizing the inclination and approaches of some artists who intentionally distort the political situation in contemporary China or stimulate erotic desires in their works.

Because of the complexity of the world's political situation and the sensitivity of certain issues in China's reform and opening up, Zhu said, it cannot be excluded that some Western politicians or business people intentionally encourage or buy over Chinese art that is overly political or that aims at self-promotion via political means. "As a result, the normal development of Chinese modern art, to a certain extent, is affected by these practices."

Zhu said he was glad to see that some of his contemporaries during the '85 New Art Wave, such as Gao Minglu, Xu Bing and Gu Wenda, have been successful in the West. But he regrets that their achievements are detached from the problems and ways of thinking that concern artists in the modernization of current China.

He encourages more attention to be paid to the new explorations of Chinese artists in seeking various possibilities in recent years. "Many modern artists in China, I feel, have found their own directions and ways of expression and gradually formed their own schools of art that have real Chinese characteristics," he said.

He cited as examples, Chinese modern calligraphy and modern wash-ink painting, which have become two highly promising artistic trends in China.

These new arts are distinctive because they use the traditional art of Chinese calligraphy and ink paintings as reference or resource in their artistic creation, maintaining their linkage with the treasures of Chinese traditional art in a modern society.

Addressing these Chinese topics in art history, new art also continues their connection with the mass audience, or the contemporary society. It is a national tradition that Chinese people welcome and participate in practising calligraphy and ink painting either as a hobby or a means of artistic creation.

Besides recycling traditional Chinese art, Zhu also noted three other aspects that would become promising possibilities for Chinese modern art.

The first is the reflection over the dissimilation of human nature and the value of machinery in a modern society that witnesses the rapid development of technology, which is a global concern.

The second is the relationship between man and nature, a topic that has been highlighted particularly in Chinese art history.

The third is conceptual art based on Chinese artistic concepts, which, according to Zhu, seek deep into the essence of human nature.

Modern art is not a bad thing. It is the responsibility of scholars and artists like himself to help the masses of people understand modern art. These beliefs have supported Zhu Qingsheng during the many years of toil in this lonely field.

Luckily his efforts are being rewarded.

His new book "Modern Art Theory," which is based on a series of influential articles he published in the Jiangsu Art Monthly under the title "What Is Modern Art," will soon be published by the Beijing-based Commercial Press, which is famous for publishing theoretical books.

Presenting an overview of modern art in the past, present and future, the book will discuss the essence and feasibility of modern art, which Zhu regards as an experiment on human nature.

Date: 09/22/1999
Author: Yang Yingshi
Copyright? by China Daily

| Events | People | Reviews | Others | dddd