Wu Hung

物尽其用：老百姓的当代艺术

The first and only comprehensive survey of contemporary Chinese art, one of the most vital and expanding sectors of the global art world today From its underground genesis during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), contemporary Chinese art has become a dynamic and hugely influential force in a globalized art world. In this first major introduction to the topic, Wu Hung provides an accessible, focused, and much-needed narrative of the development of Chinese art across all media from the 1970s to the 2000s, a time span characterized by radical social, political, and economic change in China. The book is a richly illustrated and easy-to-navigate chronological survey that considers contemporary Chinese art both in the context of China’s history and in a global arena. Wu Hung explores the emergence of contemporary art—as opposed to officially sanctioned art—in the public sphere after the Cultural Revolution; the mobilization by young artists and critics of a nationwide avant-garde movement in the mid-1980s; the re-emphasis on individual creativity in the late 1980s and the heightened spirit of experimentation of the 1990s; and the more recent identification of Chinese artists, such as Ai Weiwei, as global citizens who create works for an international audience.

Contemporary Chinese Art

A sweeping look at Chinese art across the millennia that upends traditional perspectives and offers new pathways for art history Throughout Chinese history, dynastic time—the organization of history through the lens of successive dynasties—has been the dominant mode of narrating the story of Chinese art, even though there has been little examination of this concept in discourse and practice until now. Chinese Art and Dynastic Time uncovers how the development of Chinese art was described in its original cultural, sociopolitical, and artistic contexts, and how these narratives were interwoven with contemporaneous artistic creation. In doing so, leading art historian Wu Hung opens up new pathways for the consideration of not only Chinese art, but also the whole of art history. Wu Hung brings together ten case studies, ranging from the third millennium BCE to the early twentieth century CE, and spanning ritual and religious art, painting, sculpture, the built environment, and popular art in order to examine the deep-rooted patterns in the historical conceptualization of Chinese art. Elucidating the changing notions of dynastic time in various contexts, he also challenges the preoccupation with this concept as the default mode in art historical writing. This critical investigation of dynastic time thus constitutes an essential foundation to pursue new narrative and interpretative frameworks in thinking about art history. Remarkable for the sweep and scope of its arguments and lucid style, Chinese Art and Dynastic Time probes the roots of the collective imagination in Chinese art and frees us from long-held perspectives on how this art should be understood. Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Chinese Art and Dynastic Time

"From the first sets of photographic records made by Western travellers to the emergence of ‘Chinese photography’ imbued with national anxiety and individual desire, and from doctored portraits of Chairman Mao to ‘experimental’ representations of urban transformation and avant-garde performances of the post-Cultural Revolution era, the development of photography in China has followed divergent paths through changing sociopolitical contexts, producing images with different agendas, technological innovations and artistic pursuits. Zooming In explores multiple histories of photographic production in China. At its centre lies a large question: how has photography represented China and its people, collective history and memory, individual subjectivity and creativity? To address this multifaceted question, Wu Hung offers an in-depth study of selected photographers, themes and movements of photography in China from 1860 to the present, covering a wide range of topics from portraiture to photojournalism, architectural and landscape photography, photo-publications and conceptual photography."--from the publisher

Histories of Photography in China

Zooming In

Remaking Beijingtraces China’s modern and contemporary experience, focusing on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, still the most exalted space in China today. Wu Hung describes the square’s transformation from a proscribed imperial space to a public arena of political expression, and from a monumental Communist complex to a holy relic of the Maoist era. For over half a century, since the square became the symbolic centre of the new socialist capital, it has determined the city’s development; in examining the square, the author examines the city as a whole. Wu Hung also explores the importance of Tiananmen as a locus of visual production in China: as the site for Mao’s standard portrait on Tiananmen’s façade; as the location of museums and monuments showcasing masterpieces of socialist art; and as a parade ground for extravagant National Day celebrations. In recent years it has also inspired unofficial artists to create a large body of works – paintings, photographs, performances – which challenge its authority. Using a wide range of sources including government archives, newspapers, photography, architecture, literature, art exhibitions and advertisements, this book explores the history and complex meaning of Beijing’s public spaces. As a native of Beijing, Wu Hung witnessed the construction and transformation of the city; in this book he combines historical enquiry with his own personal experience, offering a case study of a particular type of modern metropolis whose construction is intertwined with the creation of a political nation-state.

Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space

Remaking Beijing

Reinventing Books in Contemporary Chinese Art

Dong Song

Xiangyuan Zhao

Zhao Xiangyuan & Song Dong

Waste Not

Damian Harper

Wusheng Wang

Seigō Matsuoka

For more than three decades, the celebrated photographer Wang Wusheng has been captivated by the magnificence of Mount Huangshan, also known as the Yellow Mountains. As shown in this lavishly produced volume featuring a collection of 122 stunning images, largely in duotone, here are mist-shrouded, granite peaks emerging from an ever-changing veil of clouds, sculptural craggy rocks, cool springs on lofty cliffs, and weathered, oddly-shaped pine trees, depicted in all seasons. Wang Wusheng's images are so exceptional that they look like paintings. Accompanying the photographs are two essays about the art history and natural history of the Yellow Mountains.

The Yellow Mountains of China

Celestial Realm

La publicación resume el contenido de la revista en línea "Chinese-art.com", aparecida en 1997, que recoge imágenes, ensayos, entrevistas, debates, testimonios visuales y biografías sobre artistas contemporáneos que viven y trabajan en China.

Between Past and Future, Between East and West

Chinese Art at the Crossroads

Trevor Smith

Orianna Cacchione

Christine Mehring

"This publication was produced by the Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, on the occasion of the exhibition The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China, curated by Wu Hung with Orianna Cacchione."

Material Art from China

The Allure of Matter

This book contemplates a large problem: what is a traditional Chinese painting? Wu Hung answers this question through a comprehensive analysis of the screen, a major format and a popular pictorial motif in traditional China. With a broad array of examples ranging from the early centuries C.E. to the 1800s, he explores the screen’s position in art – as an important site for artistic imagination, as an illusionary representation on a flat surface, and as an architectural device defining cultural conventions. A screen occupies a space and divides it, supplies an ideal surface for painting, and has been a favourite pictorial image in Chinese art since antiquity. With its diverse roles, the screen has provided Chinese painters with endless opportunities to reinvent their art. The author argues that any understanding of Chinese painting must include discussion of its material forms as well as its intimate connection with cultural context and convention. Thus, The Double Screen offers a powerful non-western perspective on diverse artistic and cultural genres, from portraiture and pictorial narrative to voyeurism and masquerade, and will be invaluable to anyone interested in the history of art and Asian studies as well as to students and specialists in the field.

Medium and Representation in Chinese Painting

The Double Screen

This volume analyzes the cultural origins, precedents, influences and aspirations of the contemporary Chinese artists.

Wu Hung on Contemporary Art

Making History

This richly illustrated book examines the changing significance of ruins as vehicles for cultural memory in Chinese art and visual culture from ancient times to the present. The story of ruins in China is different from but connected to “ruin culture” in the West. This book explores indigenous Chinese concepts of ruins and their visual manifestations, as well as the complex historical interactions between China and the West since the eighteenth century. Wu Hung leads us through an array of traditional and contemporary visual materials, including painting, architecture, photography, prints, and cinema. A Story of Ruins shows how ruins are integral to traditional Chinese culture in both architecture and pictorial forms. It traces the changes in their representation over time, from indigenous methods of recording damage and decay in ancient China, to realistic images of architectural ruins in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the strong interest in urban ruins in contemporary China, as shown in the many artworks that depict demolished houses and decaying industrial sites. The result is an original interpretation of the development of Chinese art, as well as a unique contribution to global art history.

Wu Hung

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