![]() ![]() As I had mentioned in another article, calligraphy has not entered contemporary art because it has undergone a face-lift, so to speak (as performance art, for instance, its readability is practically nullified) rather, it is the definition of contemporary art which has been further expanded. If, a few years ago, there were still academics debating whether Chinese calligraphy ought to be defined as a form of visual art or rather as a cultural relic, then based on last year’s showing, Chinese calligraphy has answered that question most definitely and resoundingly-it is art! And even contemporary art. 克兰,《Meryon》,布面油画, 1960-1.įirst, let us start with the venerated and millennial practice of Chinese calligraphy. I would like to believe that if a certain artist produced experimental work in the 1990s, played with political symbolism in the 2000s, and then suddenly experienced an overwhelming desire-an internal desire-to contemplate “tradition” in the 2010s, then his or her sincerity should not be doubted too much-since individually, they may very well be sincere.įranz Kline, “Meryon”, oil on canvas, 1960-1. ![]() Thus, the main focus here is to explore the reasons behind this “revivalist” trend and the signals presented from this phenomenon. Furthermore, curators and writers of catalogues have already perfected the language used in expounding and blowing up a work’s significance, rendering any further contributions on my part superfluous. In this way, we can pose a more interesting question: What does it mean when “contemporary” art avoids the contemporary? Additionally, the intent is not to interpret the particular meaning of a work or the symbolic significance a creator grants the work, because usually, these interpretations are not necessarily (or necessarily not) accepted by the artists themselves. These rules have not been set up arbitrarily such limits set a “frame” to filter out the many unconnected or unimportant factors (examples include such truisms as “the rise of local collectors,” “the rise of nationalism,” “the search for cultural identity,” or “cultural renaissance”). In contrast, certain galleries or artists normally exhibiting or working in ink will be excluded from this discussion. One first point to clarify is that the aim here is to explore works with this “revivalist” tendency which appeared in various contemporary art spaces over the past year-even if the works were not necessarily created but merely exhibited in the past year. ![]() ![]() Let us then explore the production and exhibition of this “old” contemporary art in the most vibrant and active part of the contemporary Chinese art world, Beijing. Much as the Beijing winter has been very mild this year, overall, the art of the past year has also felt rather milder and more sentimental from previous years. In the year that has just passed, though, viewers crawling through art spaces might have sensed a strong sense of “revival”-of the past, of the “good old days.” Rather than an engulfing trend, it was more a quiet sprinkling of works that made their way into the four corners of the contemporary art world in China-perhaps even creeping up on the collective consciousness of creativity. No surprise, there: though not particularly memorable, such works were never far from hand. Our readers may still remember-or not-the excess of saccharine and excessively refined art on view in galleries, art fairs, and museums in 2012. ![]()
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