Modern Art Asia was founded to address the need within art history and art journalism for a space dedicated to the arts of Asia from the eighteenth century through today. For the rising generation of Asian art scholars, these works exist in a globalized interdisciplinary context at the intersection of scholarship, criticism, and the market. Modern Art Asia reflects this discourse with a combination of peer-reviewed postgraduate articles, insightful commentary, and international exhibition reviews to encourage a broader vision of art produced throughout Asia after 1700. Contemporary Asian art provides an active chronological boundary for this definition, challenging past trajectories even as it continues those traditions established centuries before with innovations inspired by globalization.
This issue brings together a diverse range of papers, commentaries and reviews on contemporary fine arts production throughout China, Japan, India and Pakistan. Mariko Aoyagi's paper on the provocative Gutai group chooses to examine their production within the context of Japanese aesthetic sensibilities; an important departure from the internationalised, Western-centric approach informing previous discourse. Xin Wang's contribution on modern video installations in Beijing, and our profile of painter Wen Ling, together offer an overview of the diversity of media deployed in contemporary Chinese production. Roshna Kapadia presents a commentary on the socio-political context of art production and display in Mumbai, investigated through recent works by Janavi Mahimtura. Finally, reviews of Chinese applied arts on show in New York by Laura Warne, and of film making in Lahore and cutting-edge scholarship on Pakistani art history by Majella Munro, complete the inter-disciplinary and pan-Asian scope of this issue.
This issue brings together a diverse range of papers, commentaries and reviews on contemporary fine arts production throughout China, Japan, India and Pakistan. Mariko Aoyagi's paper on the provocative Gutai group chooses to examine their production within the context of Japanese aesthetic sensibilities; an important departure from the internationalised, Western-centric approach informing previous discourse. Xin Wang's contribution on modern video installations in Beijing, and our profile of painter Wen Ling, together offer an overview of the diversity of media deployed in contemporary Chinese production. Roshna Kapadia presents a commentary on the socio-political context of art production and display in Mumbai, investigated through recent works by Janavi Mahimtura. Finally, reviews of Chinese applied arts on show in New York by Laura Warne, and of film making in Lahore and cutting-edge scholarship on Pakistani art history by Majella Munro, complete the inter-disciplinary and pan-Asian scope of this issue.
PLACING GUTAI WITHIN TRADITIONAL JAPANESE ART THROUGH ITS SENSORY ELEMENTS
Mariko Aoyagi
Through examination of the Gutai group's experimental use of the body both as a tool and as a site of artistic experience during the 1950s, Aoyagi relocates Gutai within the discourse of Japanese art history. Discussions of Gutai, and of Japanese post-war avant-gardism in general, have depended on the use of American models, making this paper a much-needed attempt to revise their contribution in terms of domestic art-historical context. Here, Gutai is assessed not only from a figurative perspective: social conditions; political situations; and most importantly artistic intentions are also reconstructed.
Shiraga Kazuo, Challenging Mud, 1955. © Fujiko Shiraga and the former members of the Gutai Art Association. Reproduced Courtesy of Ashiya City Museum of Art & History. All rights reserved.
Mariko Aoyagi
Through examination of the Gutai group's experimental use of the body both as a tool and as a site of artistic experience during the 1950s, Aoyagi relocates Gutai within the discourse of Japanese art history. Discussions of Gutai, and of Japanese post-war avant-gardism in general, have depended on the use of American models, making this paper a much-needed attempt to revise their contribution in terms of domestic art-historical context. Here, Gutai is assessed not only from a figurative perspective: social conditions; political situations; and most importantly artistic intentions are also reconstructed.
Shiraga Kazuo, Challenging Mud, 1955. © Fujiko Shiraga and the former members of the Gutai Art Association. Reproduced Courtesy of Ashiya City Museum of Art & History. All rights reserved.
INK, VIDEO, AND URBAN REALISM: EXPLORING CHEN SHAROXIONG’S INK ANIMATION FILMS
Xin Wang
From 2005 to 2007, Guanzhou-based artist Chen Shaoxiong created three short animated films: Ink City, Ink Diary, and The Days, based on ink paintings transcribed from photography. In an unprecedented combination of ink painting, photography, and video, Chen has drawn upon unique qualities in each and utilized them to create a simulacrum of urban experience. His refreshing narrative of urban life departs from traditional analyzes of the metropolis’ disturbing and alienating effect on city dwellers. Rather, they reflect an ambivalent mixture of excitement and dissonance, and comment on the discourse and crisis of media in contemporary art.
Xin Wang
From 2005 to 2007, Guanzhou-based artist Chen Shaoxiong created three short animated films: Ink City, Ink Diary, and The Days, based on ink paintings transcribed from photography. In an unprecedented combination of ink painting, photography, and video, Chen has drawn upon unique qualities in each and utilized them to create a simulacrum of urban experience. His refreshing narrative of urban life departs from traditional analyzes of the metropolis’ disturbing and alienating effect on city dwellers. Rather, they reflect an ambivalent mixture of excitement and dissonance, and comment on the discourse and crisis of media in contemporary art.
Chen Shaoxiong, Ink City (installation view), 2005.
ARTIST'S PORTFOLIO
Wen Ling
Wen Ling, Natatorium, 2007, oil and marker on canvas. Image courtesy The Ministry of Art.
Wen Ling
Wen Ling, Natatorium, 2007, oil and marker on canvas. Image courtesy The Ministry of Art.
JANAVI MAHIMTURA AND MUMBAI
Roshna Kapadia
Mumbai’s reputation as “diverse and cosmopolitan” has taken a hit from fundamental quarters in recent times. Over the past few months, the Shiv Sena party’s rigid chauvinistic stance has seen its leadership question a celebrated cricketer’s patriotism, incite vandalism at a leading film star’s latest movie release, and attempt to bar politician Rahul Gandhi from visiting Mumbai. Perceptual Perceptions opened on February 2010 against this backdrop of riot and mayhem. In this series, the artist depicts both the good and bad aspects of Mumbai city life, reflecting truth the way she sees it. Mahimtura’s Mumbai is a megacity in which the poor and rich are juxtaposed, and in which the lives of the local fruit vendor, international businessman, and foreign tourist continue to coverge and collide under the shadow of - and in opposition to - the Shiv Sena.
Roshna Kapadia
Mumbai’s reputation as “diverse and cosmopolitan” has taken a hit from fundamental quarters in recent times. Over the past few months, the Shiv Sena party’s rigid chauvinistic stance has seen its leadership question a celebrated cricketer’s patriotism, incite vandalism at a leading film star’s latest movie release, and attempt to bar politician Rahul Gandhi from visiting Mumbai. Perceptual Perceptions opened on February 2010 against this backdrop of riot and mayhem. In this series, the artist depicts both the good and bad aspects of Mumbai city life, reflecting truth the way she sees it. Mahimtura’s Mumbai is a megacity in which the poor and rich are juxtaposed, and in which the lives of the local fruit vendor, international businessman, and foreign tourist continue to coverge and collide under the shadow of - and in opposition to - the Shiv Sena.
Janavi Mahimtura, Taste My Sweetness, c2009
REVIEW
Reoccurring Imagery: Celebratory Decorative Arts and the Work of Xie Zhiliu
Mastering the Art of Chinese Painting: Xie Zhiliu, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 6 – July 25, 2010
Celebration: The Birthday in Chinese Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 27 – August 15, 2010
Laura Warne
Reoccurring Imagery: Celebratory Decorative Arts and the Work of Xie Zhiliu
Mastering the Art of Chinese Painting: Xie Zhiliu, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 6 – July 25, 2010
Celebration: The Birthday in Chinese Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 27 – August 15, 2010
Laura Warne
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PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT
Modernities of Chinese Art by John Clark
Brill Academic Publishing, 2009
This publication presents John Clark’s collected writings on modern and contemporary Chinese art. Almost thirty years of pioneering empirical, in-depth research is now for the first time conveniently brought together in one volume.
Taking up issues not handled much at the time by academic or curatorial writing, John Clark wrote articles on a wide range of separate topics, some of which anticipated future discussions. These articles fall into a coherent series of closely related examinations on the problems of 'modernity' in Chinese art. Most of the essays published previously elsewhere have been adapted for this publication, while others, e.g., the first hand observations of Beijing and Hong Kong in 1981, appear in print now for the first time. Chapters often include unique interview material, and much other information not found elsewhere.
Including illustrations of over 200 art works in color with biographical appendices of Taiwan and Hong Kong artists, extensive chronological materials in thematic categories on Chinese art and an extensive bibliography, this is an essential reference work for anyone interested in modern Chinese art.
Click here for more information.
Modernities of Chinese Art by John Clark
Brill Academic Publishing, 2009
This publication presents John Clark’s collected writings on modern and contemporary Chinese art. Almost thirty years of pioneering empirical, in-depth research is now for the first time conveniently brought together in one volume.
Taking up issues not handled much at the time by academic or curatorial writing, John Clark wrote articles on a wide range of separate topics, some of which anticipated future discussions. These articles fall into a coherent series of closely related examinations on the problems of 'modernity' in Chinese art. Most of the essays published previously elsewhere have been adapted for this publication, while others, e.g., the first hand observations of Beijing and Hong Kong in 1981, appear in print now for the first time. Chapters often include unique interview material, and much other information not found elsewhere.
Including illustrations of over 200 art works in color with biographical appendices of Taiwan and Hong Kong artists, extensive chronological materials in thematic categories on Chinese art and an extensive bibliography, this is an essential reference work for anyone interested in modern Chinese art.
Click here for more information.
