Inside Out: New Chinese Art

by Minglu Gao

The late twentieth century has been marked by momentous political, economic, and social change throughout the Chinese world. Deeply rooted cultural assumptions and ancient visual traditions have been challenged by rapid modernization and conflicting global, ethnic, and local identities. Inside/ New Chinese Art was the first major international exhibition to explore the impact of these challenges on artists in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and those of the 1980s Diaspora.

The multifaceted exhibition and accompanying catalog encompass an extensive range of artistic forms, including installation, video, and performance art as well as more traditional media such as oils and ink. The art is grouped according to themes, some specific to regions and others that reflect widespread and overlapping trends. With the inclusion of ambiguous territories like Hong Kong and Taiwan, the exhibition opens up a perspective of modern Chinese art from the "outside" as well as a looking-out from the "inside."

The catalog features essays by eminent Chinese art scholars and curators along with leading curators and historians of Western art. Together they promote Chinese art's rightful place in the contemporary global cultural arena and at the same time acknowledge the influence of its rich heritage.

The diversity and freshness of the exhibition reflects the explosion of creativity among Chinese artists during the past decade. The ironic social commentary of Li Shan's The Rouge Series, no. 24, the "apartment art" of artists reacting against the traditional patronage of large museums and corporations, and Wang Jin's sly humor in portraying consumer fetishes in today's China are a few examples of the spirited artistry awaiting the viewers of Inside/Out .

Genres: Art

204 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 1998

Reviews

[CM · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Inside Out" was the first major international exhibition of Chinese (mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) art in MoMA. The exhibition , and this accompanying catalogue, served as a window for the West to the evolving Chinese art after the 1989 Incident. A glance at the list of artists (at the back of the book) will reveal how selective and prestigious this show was. However, this collection of writings by the curators and scholars, plus the photographs of the exhibits, may not be that helpful to a beginner, mostly owed to the high numbers of artists and the scarcely,poorly reproduced photographs.

Readers should note the coloured photo-plates are all in the middle of the book. The second chapter by the curator (also the listed author here, Prof. Gao Minglu) stood out for the effort to contextualize and interpret individual works. The respective chapters for each region may also be of interest to a more historically minded reader.

[Susan Ackley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important as the first major survey of contemporary Chinese art in the U.S. While some of the assumptions are flawed (the result of the primary author being himself invested in the scene on which he writes) and the writing generally uneven, it is still one of the best go-to sources for Chinese art made after 1989.

[Lee]

唉! 高名潞的学术！

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick interesting read.