China Pluperfect II:Practices of Past and Outside in Chinese Art

This book contains analysis of different domains of contemporary art in China seen through the lens of the epistemological changes described in China Pluperfect I: Epistemology of Past and Outside in Chinese Art.

It first looks at the concept of “ink art,” describing how it meant different things to different people in the former colony and how these different meanings came to determine certain institutional choices made at the beginning of the 21st century. The following chapters are dedicated to issues related to the urban and rural contexts for art creation in Mainland China and Hong Kong. One chapter observes the ups and downs of the representations of cities in the history of the People’s Republic of China and how they have defined a certain idea of culture. Another looks at how Chinese cities have been exceptional centers of art creations over the last thirty to forty years through the example of Shenzhen where a vibrant art scene, albeit closely connected to Hong Kong which has become a major art hub in the last two decades, has developed. The following is dedicated to the changing fortunes of art making in the countryside, observing how institutions in the Mainland and in Hong Kong have supported these practices very differently.

Frank Vigneron finally considers how the different speeds of globalization, slow in the past and fast today, have determined some of the issues of past and outside in the present, particularly in the context of socially engaged art in both the Mainland and Hong Kong.

 

FRANK VIGNERON is Chair and Professor at the Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on the history of Chinese painting from the 18th century onwards as well as on different aspects of contemporary Chinese art as seen in a global context.

He received a PhD in Chinese Art History from the Paris VII University, a PhD in Comparative Literature from the Paris IV Sorbonne University, and a Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

List of Figures……………………………………………….……….…………..…………..vii
Introduction…………………………………………………………….……..……...…….xiii
1 Hong Kong Ink: A History of Past and Outside……….…………..…..……….1
Bamboo Curtain and Mass Media………………………….………..…..………..2
Ink Society in Hong Kong………………………………………….……….….………16
Hong Kong Ink Art Museum…………………………….……….……..…..………26
Marginalization of Hong Kong Art…………………………….….…..…..……..36
2 “When Is a Landscape Like a Body?”……………………………………....…….53
The Mollywood Series………………………………………………….……....……..54
Mundane Mind and “Paintings of Beauties”………………………..….…...61
Gender Positioning in Literati Culture…………………………………………..69
Hong Kong Mundanity and Patriarchy in Mainland China………...…..72
3 From Rural to Urban and Back Again…………………………………..………….81
Peace Reigns over the River in Hong Kong………………………….…………82
River of Wisdom in Shanghai and Hong Kong……………………….……….88
Anti-urban Bias of the Maoist Period…………………………………….………92
Pro-urban Bias of the 1990s and Beyond…………………….………..………98
4 New Urban Frontier…………………………………………………………..……….109
“One Country, Two Systems,” and One Border………………..…………110
The City over the Border: Shenzhen…………………………….….…………122
Three Plasticians in Shenzhen……………………………………….…………..127
Art Market and Institutional Critique……………………….……...………..144
5 New Rural Frontier…………………………………………………….……………….153
Peasant Paintings during the Maoist Period………………......………...154
“Beautiful Countryside”…………………………………………………………….159
“Reviving the Country through Culture”…………………………………….165
Socially-Engaged Art Practices in the Hong Kong Countryside…….181
6 Multi-cultural World…………………………………………………………………..213
Past and Outside……………………………………………………………………….214
Mobility as Privilege………………………………………………………………….216
Mobility as Necessity………………………………………………………………..224
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………….235