This beautifully designed and illustrated catalogue presents the 218 gifts of Chinese art from Ruth and Bruce Dayton to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Ranging in date from the Shang to the Qing, these objects were carefully chosen to form a high-quality and well-balanced collection that encompasses all classical Chinese traditions. They include ancient metalwork, Buddhist arts, lacquer, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, classical furniture and literati objects. Among the highlights are a Warring States inlaid bronze chariot fitting, a large Han bronze horse and a Han bronze money tree, a Song wooden Buddhist sculpture, Ming sutras and Taoist paintings, Sino-Tibetan Buddhist arts, outstanding lacquerwares of the Han, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, Song, Yuan and Ming paintings in the literati tradition, Ming hardwood furniture, and a variety of scholar's objects.
Chinese contemporary art is currently enjoying a worldwide boom, fetching record-breaking prices at auction houses around the globe. The country's rapid transition from Communism to consumerism, and the dizzying changes brought about by urbanization, globalization and new technologies have created a fascinating explosion of art overwhelmingly concerned with the search for self-identity in a society that, from Confucius to Mao, has traditionally disregarded individualism for the collective good.
Avatars and Antiheroes reflects the schizophrenic undercurrents of a nation in continuous fast-forward. From the Cynical Realism and Political Pop movements associated with the post-Tiananmen generation of artists such as Yue Minjun, whose grinning representations of himself as antihero seem to mock the revolutionary heroes of old, to the pop-culture generation spearheaded by Cao Fei, whose digital avatars live in a world without borders, this book showcases the work of the most important contemporary artists to emerge from China in recent years.
Stunning full-color plates of the work of Chinas leading painters, photographers, sculptors, performance artists, video artists, and even a fireworks artist are complemented by insightful commentary from Beijing-based art specialist Claudia Albertini, who personally interviewed many of the artists featured.
The essays in this volume offer a variety of perspectives on the impact of the West on indigenous literature, architecture, painting, and calligraphy during this period (ca. 1860-1980).
At a time when interest in China has never been greater, this revised edition of Mary Tregear's authoritative survey of the Chinese visual arts will be welcomed by art lovers, travelers, and students alike. Generously illustrated and eminently readable, it covers not only bronzes, jades, calligraphy, and painting, but also Buddhist sculpture, ceramics, textiles, jewelry, lacquer, garden design, and architecture. For the revised edition, Chinese names, places, and terms have been romanized to current international usage. Throughout, information has been updated in view of new finds; there is a new introduction, and the final chapter on twentieth-century art has been completely rewritten. Includes a chronology of Chinese historical periods and six maps.
-Discover the artists that created a unique abstract art that led to the regeneration of 20th century Chinese painting -Abstract art at the crossroads of East and West -An unknown artistic universe showing the fabulous history of Chinese artists who fled to Taiwan At the end of the 1940s, in the troubled political context of the Chinese civil war and the subsequent seizure of power by Mao Zedong, over a million Chinese left the mainland to seek refuge in Taiwan. In the new world that opened to them, the artists gradually discovered the abstract art of the schools in New York and Paris. Abstraction became a means for them to become part of the international modernist movement, while expressing their deep cultural roots. At the crossroads of the East and West, they created a unique art that led to the regeneration of 20th century Chinese painting. Text in English and French.
For their 19,000-mile journey across China, Swiss photographers Monika Fischer and Mathias Braschler made one portrait every day. The resulting series of documentary photos depicts both the winners and losers of the country's economic transformations, from the small farmer who still plows his fields with water buffaloes to the wealthy yacht club owner posing with his Lamborghini.
Since the end of the Cultural Revolution a whole new generation of artists has emerged in mainland China. This striking new volume presents seventy five artworks by twenty seven of these young Chinese artists. Covering all media, works by artists and collectives such as Birdhead, Double Fly, Irrelevant Commission, Liu Di, and Ma Qiusha have opened a window onto a new China, a society that has undergone rapid industrialization and globalization in the past two decades.
Author Barbara Pollack is a New-York-based independent curator, writer, and journalist, and a leading expert on contemporary Chinese art. She serves as consultant to the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of New Champions in China.
Publication accompanies a major exhibit opening at both Tampa Museum of Art and St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts, FL, June 7 - September 28, 2014, before travelling to Oklahoma City Museum of Art, October 25, 2014 - January 18, 2015.
