Traditional Culture in Chinese Contemporary Art

Started on the quest by my father, who sent me some scans of work by artist Yao Lu (which you can find here), I've been on the lookout this term for websites and galleries of modern Chinese artists, and as I've discovered, there's much more to Chinese art than misty mountains, Confucius, and Ai Weiwei.

Yao Lu - combines photography with photoshop to create an idyllic Chinese painting from afar, but close-up reveals landscapes of waste and pollution.

A good place to start is this selection of 25 contemporary Chinese artists.

Wall art by Hua Tunan of Foshan

Another take on the mountainous Chinese landscape painting, this time made with bottoms - by Liu Wei

Disembodied rainbow Mao suits - by Sui Jianguo

If you want to find out more about the history of Contemporary Chinese Art, and hear it in a much more engaging format than I could ever convey, I recommend a podcast by Sinica titled 'From the Underground to the Internet: Contemporary Art in China', which can be downloaded in an mp3 format here.

The discussion raises interesting points about modern Chinese art, namely that there is a pressure on Chinese artists not to pander to the Western market. The phrase used in the podcast was creating 'packaged to send' artworks. As the Chinese nation grows wealthier, it's interest in investing in home-grown art has swelled too.

Although, I don't think it is simply market forces at work which draw Chinese artists to typically Chinese themes (for example, see the constant re-invention of the Chinese landscape tradition through three modern artists I have shown above). From what I interpret, many pieces are explorations of identity, cultural consciousness and nationhood at a time of immense upheaval.

The Contemporary Chinese Art scene is dynamic and there are a number of sites dedicated to catching up with it all. Neocha (edge.neocha.com) documents the work of Chinese artists all over the world, and foreigners art in China too. Art-ba-ba (www.art-ba-ba.com), a play on the Chinese retail giant Ali-ba-ba, is on the ball when it comes to the Chinese art world, although the website is in Chinese. Artscenechina (www.artscenechina.com) is another site you might want to check out for up and coming artists. For those in London, we have our very own gallery dedicated to Chinese art (www.hua-gallery.com).