Chinese art is as insincere as a prostitute calling
herself a virgin, says a Chinese cultural entrepreneur. To my astonishment he
continues: the majority of the art is phony and flavored for the Western taste.
Artists like Zhang Xiaogang being the sparse exception. Opposing his remarkable
statement I offer He Zubin, a Chinese artist I particularly like, without
clearly knowing why. My friend laughs: typical! That’s exactly what you
westerners favor, but it is not true Chinese art. It is like the food, he says,
the Chinese restaurants in your country serve food that caters for your taste.
It is not what Chinese eat themselves. It is the same with art. So what is the
secret recipe? Which ingredients make Chinese art sincere?
Since the end of the Cultural Revolution some 25 years
ago, Chinese art has undergone a rapid transition.
Artists experience relatively more artistic freedom, yet still within the
boundaries of the communist policy. The resurrection of Chinese culture has
been watched closely ever since, not only by party members, but also by the
rest of the art world. If China is going to be the next world power, its art
will certainly hold a dominant position. Especially since a large part of the
purchasers is Chinese, determined to take better care of their cultural
treasures than they did in the past. The rest of the buyers are westerners,
riding the economic wave of Chinese art, seeing the value of their recent
purchases tripling or quadrupling in a few years’ time.
My Chinese friend was not the only one critical
towards Chinese contemporary art. A Chinese artist I met recently is fed up
with his fellow artists abusing the Cultural Revolution for their artistic
themes. The revolution as a subject is not only approved by Chinese
politicians, it is also very popular among westerners. Ironical compositions
featuring Mao nearly diminish his cruel heritage. What happened during that
time was horrible, the artist says, but European contemporary artists don’t
continue dwelling on the Second World War either. It is time for new artistic
stories.
Stories that will have to surpass Chinese censorship
however. One day before opening my solo here in Shanghai, my gallerist welcomed
two men in suits wearing cameras. She recognized them from previous shows and told
me they were from Censorship, inspecting the art works and the messages they
convey. If a piece is considered too provocative and not in line with party
policy, you are asked to take it down.
When not investigating popular themes like the
revolution or the link between man and nature, Chinese artists choose intimate,
autobiographical subjects instead. The Chinese artist I spoke to uses his
previous medical profession as his source of inspiration. He finds it hard to
relate his work to other contemporary Chinese artists. Most Chinese artists
tend to repeat themselves, he thinks.
And others just copy the great western artists. At a
show in Eastlink Gallery I found myself staring at what appeared to be a
Richter but what turned out to be a Chinese copy instead. Similarly I
encountered several Chinese Dumas’ and Serra’s. Was this another illustration
of Chinese copy culture to cater for the
western taste or are Chinese artists connecting with foreign artists and is
this the beginning of a broader international artistic discourse?
