An exhibition of contemporary Chinese art at the prestigious
Tate gallery in Britain has drawn wildly enthusiastic reviews.
Right from its glittering opening on March 29, art critics and the
public have lavished it with praise, although some consider it a
little too surreal. It is being hailed as the most comprehensive
and adventurous if at the same time controversial collection of
Chinese modern art ever put on display in the UK, or even
Europe.
Indeed, there is a growing conviction that it might even surpass
the hugely successful exhibition spanning the reigns of the three
Qing Dynasty emperors Kangxi (1662-1722), Yongzheng (1723-35) and
Qianlong (1735-95), which attracted record visitors to London's
Royal Academy of Arts two years ago. While the previous show was
devoted to the artistic and cultural riches of Imperial China, this
latest offering is a different creature altogether.
Billed as the show of the year if not the century so far at the
Tate's northern
Chinese artist Zhou Tiehai with Karen Smith, a British art
writer and curator based in Beijing.
Photos courtesy of Lew Baxter
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headquarters in the UK's maritime city of Liverpool, it features 18
Chinese artists of varying degrees of fame and talent. The British
arts scene is arguing almost unanimously that it has helped dispel
the foreign notion that Chinese art is mainly about classical
calligraphy and traditional values, usually reflected in scroll
paintings or images of Mao and events since 1949.
Perhaps the most startling of the exhibits is by Shanghai artist
Xu Zhen, who a decade ago was struggling to scratch a living. As
part of an artistic "stunt" that outraged many environmentalists,
Xu had hacked off the tip of Mount Qomolangma and shipped it back
to Beijing where he displayed the frozen lump of rock and ice in a
refrigerated box.
This audacious act recorded on video sent shock waves around the
globe, yet it persuaded Tate Liverpool's head of exhibitions Simon
Groom that he had to involve Xu in the planned exhibition The Real
Thing Contemporary Art from China that has taken three years to
bring together.
Groom's other great coup was commissioning Ai Weiwei one of
China's best-known artistic figures, particularly for his
involvement with the "Bird's Nest", the fabulous latticework of
girders at the Olympic Stadium in Beijing being built by Herzog and
de Meuron.
Ai's contribution to the exhibition which has cost a total of
more than 5 million yuan ($645,000) is an 8-meter high floating
crystal chandelier of light, weighing 3 tonnes. This astonishing
creation called The Fountain of Light is valued at over 1 million
yuan ($130,000) yet Simon Groom reveals that sponsorship flowed
once the word was out about his ambitious hopes for such an
eclectic Chinese focused exhibition.
At the turn of the millennium, China was the star of the Venice
Biennale and ever since there has been a surge of exhibitions from
New York and Berlin to London and Sydney.
Groom insists that the Chinese art scene is quite amazing at
present. "It is just simply NOW!" he exclaims.
"The price of contemporary Chinese art has made it probably the
most sought after and costly in the world. There is so much
interest in China at present that people are falling over
themselves to get a share of it."
Indeed he has the backing of the Henry Moore Foundation and the
UK Red Mansion Foundation amongst a string of well-heeled patrons
that are clearly aware of the exhibition's importance. China's
cultural counsellor from the embassy in London, Ke Yasha, attended
the launch party.
Apart from Xu Zhen, who as well as participating was an adviser
to the project, Groom also worked closely with the British art
writer and curator Karen Smith based in Beijing. She writes for
Time Out as an art critic and last year published her first book on
Chinese art Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China
that explored the emerging art scene.
A fluent Mandarin speaker, Smith has lived in China since the
early 1990s and introduced Groom to many of the new wave of Chinese
artists in Beijing, particularly those based in the Dashanzi arts
community located in a former machine tool plant known as Factory
798, and the even more dynamic Alcohol Factory.
"There is a different official attitude to art these days and we
were able to talk to a lot of artists and curators in China," she
says. "We wanted this exhibition to reflect what is really
happening today and so we came up with the title The Real
Thing."
Groom continued: "It is a true indicator of contemporary art in
China at present, characterized by humor and irony."
Other artists chosen for the British show include Wang Peng
whose humorous videos reflect on travel; Gu Dexin who deals in
mixed media; Yang Fudong whose 840,000 yuan ($108,000) video
installation is called Dog 2007; as well as Qui Xiaofei, Gu Dexin
and Yang Shaobin whose oil paintings of miners at work are courtesy
of the Long March Foundation.
While reaction to the exhibits has been mostly positive, some
more conservative minded visitors were cautious.
The UK based writer and exhibition organizer Xia Lu originally
from Beijing remarked: "Maybe this doesn't reflect the real
traditional quality of Chinese art. I think maybe it is not as
clever as some suggest."
Yet her British colleague Dave Ward who has recently completed a
short literary lecture tour of China thought it a fantastic example
of how China is developing.
Other Chinese visitors to the Tate exhibition a little more
mature in years also expressed a view that it was perhaps more
Western influenced than they might prefer. And veteran China hand
Kerry Brown who heads up the British based Strategic China
consultancy and a committee member of the distinguished 48 Group
Club involved with China since the early 1950s commented: "It is
certainly different and while maybe not my cup of tea, I admire the
energy that has gone into it.
The show continues until June 10 and is running in tandem with
the UK focused Aftershock exhibition in Beijing's Capital Museum.
Sponsored by the British Council, it features the "brat-pack" of
British artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.
The author is editor-in-chief of Cities500 International
Publishers
(China Daily April 17, 2007)