Contemporary Chinese Art, Aesthetic Modernity and Zhang Peili: Towards a Critical Contemporaneity (Aesthetics and Contemporary Art)

In recent decades the previously assumed dominance within the international art world of western(ized) conceptions of aesthetic modernity has been challenged by a critically becalming diversification of cultural outlooks widely referred to as 'contemporaneity'. Contributing to that diversification are assertions within mainland China of essential differences between Chinese and western art.
In response to the critical impasse posed by contemporaneity, Paul Gladston charts a historical relay of mutually formative interactions between the artworlds of China and the West as part of a new transcultural theory of artistic criticality. Informed by deconstructivism as well as syncretic Confucianism, Gladston extends this theory to a reading of the work of the artist Zhang Peili and his involvement with the Hangzhou-based art group, the Pond Association (Chi she). Revealed is a critical aesthetic productively resistant to any single interpretative viewpoint, including those of Chinese exceptionalism and the supposed immanence of deconstructivist uncertainty. 
Addressing art in and from the People's Republic of China as a significant aspect of post-West contemporaneity, Gladston provides a new critical understanding of what it means to be 'contemporary' and the profound changes taking place in the art world today.

Gladston, Paul

Arts & Photography

Bloomsbury Academic

About the Author\nPaul Gladston is the Judith Neilson Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of New South Wales, Australia and was previously Professor of Contemporary Visual Cultures and Critical Theory at the University of Nottingham, UK. His recent book-length publications include Contemporary Chinese Art: A Critical History (2014), which received 'publication of the year' at the Award of Art China 2015. He was founding principal editor of the peer-reviewed Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art from 2014 to 2017 and an academic adviser to the internationally acclaimed exhibition Art of Change: New Directions from China staged at the Hayward Gallery-South Bank Centre London in 2012.\nTiziana Andina is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Labont Center for Ontology at the University of Turin, Italy. She is co-editor of the Brill Research Perspectives in Art and Law series and of the Bloomsbury Aesthetics and Contemporary Art series.\nIn recent decades the previously assumed dominance within the international art world of western(ized) conceptions of aesthetic modernity has been challenged by a critically becalming diversification of cultural outlooks widely referred to as 'contemporaneity'. Contributing to that diversification are assertions within mainland China of essential differences between Chinese and western art.\nIn response to the critical impasse posed by contemporaneity, Paul Gladston charts a historical relay of mutually formative interactions between the artworlds of China and the West as part of a new transcultural theory of artistic criticality. Informed by deconstructivism as well as syncretic Confucianism, Gladston extends this theory to a reading of the work of the artist Zhang Peili and his involvement with the Hangzhou-based art group, the Pond Association (Chi she). Revealed is a critical aesthetic productively resistant to any single interpretative viewpoint, including those of Chinese exceptionalism and the supposed immanence of deconstructivist uncertainty.\nAddressing art in and from the People's Republic of China as a significant aspect of post-West contemporaneity, Gladston provides a new critical understanding of what it means to be 'contemporary' and the profound changes taking place in the art world today.

Since the confirmation of Deng Xiaoping’s policy of Opening and Reform in 1978, the People’s Republic of China has undergone a liberalization of culture that has led to the production of numerous forms of avant-garde, experimental, and museum-based art. With a fast-growing international market and a thriving artistic community, contemporary Chinese art is riding a wave of prosperity, though issues of censorship still abound. Shedding light on the current art scene, Paul Gladston’s Contemporary Chinese Art puts China’s recent artistic output into the context of the wider cultural, economic, and political conditions that surround it. Providing a critical mapping of ideas and practices that have shaped the development of Chinese art, Gladston shows how these combine to bind it to the structure of power and state both within and outside of China. Focusing principally on art produced by artists from mainland China―including painting, film, video, photography, and performance―he also discusses art created in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and diasporic communities. Illustrated with 150 images, Contemporary Chinese Art unravels the complexities of politics, artistic practice, and culture in play in China’s art scene.

Contemporary Chinese Art: A Critical History

History & Criticism

Reaktion Books

This book gives a critical account of four of the most significant avant-garde Chinese art groups and associations of the late 1970s and ’80s. It is made up largely of conversations conducted by the author with members of these organizations that provide insight into the circumstances of artistic production during the decade leading up to the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989. The conversations are supported by an extended introduction and other comprehensive notes that give a detailed overview of the historical circumstances under which the groups and associations developed.

'Avant-garde' Art Groups in China, 1979-1989

Intellect Ltd

While a number of the essays contained in this book focus specifically on questions related to Chinese culture, the collection as a whole ranges geographically from China and Europe to Latin America. The collection also addresses a highly diverse range of subjects, including theatrical performance, military history, life writing, the everyday, scientific display, transnational cinema, contemporary visual art and literature. Bringing all of the essays together is a common commitment on the part of their authors to a critical assessment of the connectivity between differing cultural identities and, what is more, the continuing consequences of that connectivity as part of contemporary globalisation. China and Other Spaces will be of direct interest to scholars and practitioners working in cultural studies, history, the performing arts, literature, the visual arts, museology, film studies and philosophy.

China and Other Spaces

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Critical, Cultural and Communications Press

The book presents a range of articles and discussions that offer critical insights into the development of contemporary Chinese art, both within China and internationally. It brings together selected writings, both published and unpublished, by Paul Gladston, one of the foremost international scholars on contemporary Chinese art. The articles are based on extensive first-hand research, much of which was carried out during an extended residence in China between 2005 and 2010. In contrast to many other writers on contemporary Chinese art, Gladston analyses his subject with specific reference to the concerns of critical theory. In his writings he consistently argues for a “polylogic” (multi-voiced) approach to research and analysis grounded in painstaking attention to local, regional and international conditions of artistic production, reception and display.

Deconstructing Contemporary Chinese Art: Selected Critical Writings and Conversations, 2007-2014 (Chinese Contemporary Art Series)

Springer

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Books by Gladston, Paul

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gladston, Paul. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Contemporary Chinese Art, Aesthetic Modernity and Zhang Peili: Towards a Critical Contemporaneity (Aesthetics and Contemporary Art)

Contemporary Chinese Art, Aesthetic Modernity and Zhang Peili: Towards a Critical Contemporaneity (Aesthetics and Contemporary Art)

Contemporary Chinese Art: A Critical History

'Avant-garde' Art Groups in China, 1979-1989

China and Other Spaces

Deconstructing Contemporary Chinese Art: Selected Critical Writings and Conversations, 2007-2014 (Chinese Contemporary Art Series)