Art and Modernism in Socialist China: Unexplored International Encounters 1949–1979 (Routledge Research in Art History)

This edited volume will be the first book examining the art history of China’s socialist period from the perspective of modernism, modernity, and global interactions. The majority of chapters are based on newly available archival materials and fresh critical frameworks/concepts. By shifting the frame of interpretation from socialist realism to socialist modernity, this study reveals the plurality of the historical process of developing modernity in China, the autonomy of artistic agency, and the complexity of an art world conditioned, yet not completely confined, by its surrounding political and ideological apparatus. The unexpected global exchanges examined by many of the authors in this study and the divergent approaches, topics, and genres they present add new sources and insights to this research field, revealing an art history that is heterogeneous, pluralistic, and multi-layered. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, art and politics, and Chinese studies. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures List of Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction Notes Bibliography Part One Art Exchanges 1 Chile, China, Cuba, a Mural and Beyond Notes Bibliography 2 Realism Or Modernism?: Exhibitions of Sesshu and Sino–Japanese Artistic Exchanges in the 1950s Sino–Japanese Artistic Exchanges Before the 1956 Sesshu Exhibitions The Sesshu Exhibitions and Their Political Significance Realism Or Modern Meanings: The Interpretations of the Sesshu Exhibitions Coda Notes Bibliography 3 An Unpublicized Graduation Exhibition in 1962: Misalignments Impacting the Romanian Painting Class in China Baba Or Popa? Starting Off With a Misunderstanding A Diplomatic Strategy Rather Than an Art Exchange The Romanian School Vs. the Soviet School Two Contrasting Versions of the Real Conclusion Notes Bibliography 4 A Short-Lived Challenge to Socialist Realism: Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Other British Artists in a Little Known 1960 Exhibition in China A Pioneering Exhibition Rediscovered “A Western Alternative to the Influence of Naturalism” “Chinese Attitudes to Painting Are a Complete Reversal of Our Own” A Worldwide Network of Modernism Notes Bibliography 5 “So Are They Good Artists?”: Context and Asymmetry in Postwar Sino–Italian Artistic Exchanges Postwar Italian Art in Context The Stakes of Postwar Sino–Italian Exchanges A Scroll Painting Like None Other: Bicultural Collaborative Work “So Are They Good Artists?” Conclusion Notes Bibliography 6 The Politics of Landscape Painting: Three International Art Exhibitions in 1970s China China and Cultural Diplomacy in the 1970s Canadian Landscape Painting: Where Is the Group of Seven? Australian Landscape Painting: One Landscape, Two Presentations Why Did the French Exhibition Finally Succeed? Coda Notes Bibliography Part Two Alternative Practices 7 “Creating A New Era in the Twentieth Century”: Huang Binhong (1865–1955) and Modern Art During the Cold War Modernism Within the Socialist Camp Modernism Within the Capitalist Camp “A New Era in the Twentieth Century”: Traversing Two Camps Notes Bibliography 8 Tan Huamu’s Pictorial Diaries in the Era of the New China Homecoming, 1949– Pictorial Diaries (1956–68) Quick Sketching, Expressive Suggestion, and Montage Composition Scenery, Landscape, and Photography Old Photographs and Inventory of Tan’s Paintings Witty Themes of 1957 Snapshot Recordings The Image of the New Village: Barefoot Village Women Slope and Shepherd Notes Bibliography 9 A Battle Between Two Paths of Art?: Huang Xinbo and Modernism During His Hong Kong Period Two Types of Creation? “Formalist” Oil Paintings Intersection Between Black-And-White Woodcuts and Oil Paintings? Conclusion Notes Bibliography 10 The Moving Image: Ye Qianyu, Dance and Socialist Modernity in Art Introduction Ye Qianyu and the Creative Energy of the Print Media Industry in Republican Era Shanghai Making the Shift to Sketching From Life Ye Qianyu and Dai Ailian Travel and Awakening to Cultural and Ethnic Diversity Within and Beyond China Notes Bibliography 11 Decorative Pictures: Zhang Ding and Chinese Modernism in the 1960s Zhang Ding’s Modernist Style Introduction and Transformation of the Concept of Decorative Pictures Decorative Pictures in Art Institutions Conclusion Notes Bibliography 12 The Romanian Oil Painting Training Class and Modernist Undercurrents in Chinese Art Education of the Socialist Period Notes Bibliography Part Three Coda 13 Never Forget Mao: The Monumental as Radical Universal OR: The Making of a “Maoist Modern” Statue-Mania I: The Controversy Over the “Chinese” Martin Luther King The Maoist Modern – Rethinking “Socialist Realism” and the Monumental Universal Statue-Mania II: Controversies Over Devotional Imperatives, Fatherly Bodies, and Wavy Hair Conclusion: The Global Monumental as Radical Universal? A Transcultural Perspective Notes Bibliography Index This edited volume will be the first book examining the art history of China’s socialist period from the perspective of modernism, modernity, and global interactions.The majority of chapters are based on newly available archival materials and fresh critical frameworks/concepts. By shifting the frame of interpretation from socialist realism to socialist modernity, this study reveals the plurality of the historical process of developing modernity in China, the autonomy of artistic agency, and the complexity of an art world conditioned, yet not completely confined, by its surrounding political and ideological apparatus. The unexpected global exchanges examined by many of the authors in this study and the divergent approaches, topics, and genres they present add new sources and insights to this research field, revealing an art history that is heterogeneous, pluralistic, and multi-layered.The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, art and politics, and Chinese studies.