Chinease Art

Twenty-five chinese artists give readers a glimpse of their lives and of how they work

In just over 30 years China's contemporary art market has developed from nothing to become a huge financial success.

No one would have imagined that a decade ago the Chinese contemporary art market would have an annual trading volume of 170 billion yuan (19.3 billion euros).

In order to provide a comprehensive look at Chinese contemporary art, the Foreign Languages Press has published an illustrated book titled At Work: Twenty-five Contemporary Chinese Artists.

The book profiles 25 painters, sculptors, photographers and conceptual artists, taking the reader into their studios and presenting intimate glimpses of their lives and works.

Traditional Chinese painting, oil painting, engraving and sculpture account for the majority of art creations since 1949, but they do not fit into the classification of "contemporary art" here.

Generally, it is acknowledged that China's contemporary art movement emerged from the Star Art Exhibition of 1979, three years after the end of the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) and the beginning of reform and opening-up.

The exhibition displayed 150 artworks, mostly imitating forms of expression from Western Modernism.

After being relatively cut-off from the rest of the world, Chinese artists were thirsty for the new and exotic. The Star Art Exhibition was a breakthrough for new-generation artists.

The New Wave of 1985-1989 saw Chinese contemporary art grow up. Artists fully embraced new Western art forms such as Expressionism, Cubism, Abstract and Dadaism.

Chinese contemporary art ebbed in the 1990s for various reasons, but with the 21st century and its economic transformation and dramatic social changes, what used to be called "unorthodox" and "decadent" became fashionable.