Monday afternoon - Contemporary Chinese art (Yu)

[Anonymous]

I was so impressed by the way Dr. Yu Yu connected the art with what was happening in China at the time. I think that is such an important link to see how history affects all aspects of life - including art. I am definitely going to have my students look at some of those pieces of art when we are studying modern China.

[Anonymous]

I truly enjoyed the Chinese art presentation. It was amazing the huge difference between traditional Chinese art and contemporary art.

[Anonymous]

The effect that the cultural revolution had on Chinese art was impreasive. The painting of thw Father, was so realistic.

[Anonymous]

I agree,abstract art is still pretty beautiful. Yet, I personally prefer traditional Chinese art.

[Anonymous]

I agree,abstract art is still pretty beautiful. Yet, I personally prefer traditional Chinese art.

[Anonymous]

I am glad that you like "Father". It is one of the painting I like the most. Actually, it was in Chinese art textbook. My teacher took one whole lesson to talk about it.

[Anonymous]

Dr Yu Yu was facinating! Whew! we went through a lot of years and a lot of artwork in a short time!

I loved learning about the museum, how it was given to the city and ultimately saved by caring people. WE are now the benefactors to that. I am going to bring my students and family to some of the programs they offer here, hopefully starting this Sunday with the Hawaiian storytelling/music as I have a daughter wanting to learn the ukelele.

It was fascinating for me to hear and see how art was used as power for the Chinese people. They spoke through their artwork. Some peices of art wern't
appreciated. Dr. YuYu pointing things out to us was most helpful as I am not that good at analysing artwork. A few pictures have stayed clearly in my minds eye though and strongly spoke to me: the two ladies under the hair dryer verses the picture of the girl with the traditional short cut haircut and uniform, the soldier, student and peasant holding the red flag with a pencil on the end of it, with a red book off to the left and coca cola off to the right,;the girl sitting on the old wall with her face turned away looking toward a new modern building, and finally the boy sitting on the public toilet with flies all over him to show what they have to go through to try to survive in life.

i want to use artwork in my classroom more, to inspire and move my students in their writing and in teaching them about history. Today showed me how I can go about doing this.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Yu yu presented us with an extensive amount of information. I was not familiar with contemporary Chinese Art. The extent of my knowledge was limited. Traditional Chinese art was meant to create beauty. Traditional art was meant to be admired not to rebel or prove a point. Mountains, calligraphy, and landscapes were beautiful. While some of the traditional techniques are still in use today (e.g. wood cuts, calligraphy, prints, and/or watercolors) are still used. Art's purpose changed throughout time. Contemporary art was created with a purpose other than being a beautiful piece to admire. It might be use for business propaganda, social themes, political themes, or simply a source of expression of one’s identity. The transition from painting a woman with short hair, no expression, on a land filled with sadness to nude women with long hair at the water festival having fun was a 180 degree turn. Art became a form of capturing struggles and/or successes that society and individuals were dealing with. Every day life could be transferred into a canvas and made into art. People became the stars, not the mountains or landforms.

As I was looking online for some of the paintings mentioned by Dr. Yu Yu, I came across and article on “The Economist” that dealt with art during the Cultural Revolution and an exhibition that displayed the art at Asia Society Gallery in Hong Kong. I also found an interview with the curators of the exhibition. I included an excerpt from the article to introduce it. I have attached the links for both, the article and video.

1) The Economist article that talks about art during the cultural revolution and exhibition

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2013/06/chinese-art-during-cultural-revolution

"Light Before Dawn: Unofficial Chinese Art 1974 to 1985" is an unusual exhibition which brings together the works of 22 Chinese artists who quietly banded together during a repressive time. These artists shared techniques and forged a solidarity that helped them to outfox the authorities. Their art was a rebellion against "the pattern of brutality, narrow-mindedness, hypocrisy, and irrationality" institutionalised during the Cultural Revolution, write Julia Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, the show's curators, in a moving forward to the catalogue.” (from The Economist)

2) Interview with the 2 curators of exhibition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo1kCfjTPRc
edited by malvarenga on 8/4/2015

[Anonymous]

I was fascinated with Qiu Zhijie's "Copying the Orchid Pavilion Preface a Thousand Times." I could use the piece when I talk about ancient Chinese writing. I may begin with having my students attempt to copy some of the preface themselves and tell them that for centuries people would copy the preface to work on their calligraphy. I would then show them Zhijie's work to connect the ancient world to today. I would put up pictures of the work at various stages and allow them to formulate their own questions for discussion based on the piece.

In my creative writing class, I could use Liu Chaung's "Buying Everything on You" in an activity for my creative writing class. I would begin by giving some background on the piece and then have my students create a character sketch of who they imagine the original owner of the items in the photo to be. Alternatively I could have them write a scene with the original owner of the items. In the scene, the character would need to use some of the items and the items should reveal something about the character. This could be a good activity for showing, not telling.

[Anonymous]

From just what I read and follow on the news and readings, I'm not sure I agree whole-heartedly on Chinese artists having more freedom of expression than people in the States. I guess I see it "economically" where there's more opportunity and possibly less government restrictions to an extent? But I'm not sure that means they individually are still not cautious of government censorship.

[Anonymous]

So here is a story that discusses architecture in China

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/20/travel/gallery/china-weird-buildings-2015/

[clay dube]

One of the artists highlighted by Christina Yu Yu was Cai Guoqiang. Here's a youtube video of one of his creations: Sky Ladder. Pretty amazing pyrotechnics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unMoF9VWSlU

Here's a video following Cai as he worked at MOCA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whxaekh4IzU

And here's the MOCA page on it: http://sites.moca.org/thecurve/category/cai-guo-qiang/page/2/

Be sure to check out the films discussed by Julie at: http://uschinaforum.usc.edu/topic20025-ai-weiwei-cai-guoqiang-cao-fai.aspx

[Anonymous]

Dr. Yu Yu is really knowledgable about contemporary Chinese art. I like the arts she talked about during Culture Revolution and after Culture Revolution. I heard my parents talking about their life during Culture Revolution once a while, and kind of know what happened. For most of ordinary people like my parents, all they want were living peacefully. The art works Dr. Yu showed reflected the artists who were more aggressive and willing to have his/her voice through the art works. This was really eye-opening. I found it was hard to explain to American students about Culture Revolution, and the people life during that time. These art works may be better than my words. I will also use contemporary Chinese art in class to compare with traditional Chinese art which mostly are ink painting.

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed the exhibit New Chinese Art Inside Out. I liked the thematic organization of categories like "reaction to consumerism" and "leisure culture in the 1990s" or "the quest for cultural identity in Taiwan." My favorite was the commissioned piece Cai Guo-quiang. It was inspired by the naval confrontation during the third century between contenders for the Chinese throne. This piece of art is half old half new: the boat was excavated near Quanzhou which is the artists' hometown, however, the arrows are new and they are constructed of bamboo with bronze points and goose feathers. It is about the Chinese culture in which a disadvantage must be changed into an advantage. It speaks to both the contradictions in Chinese society and the danger and inherent risk of global relationships. This type of piece reminds me a lot of a museum I went to in Athens called the Acropolis museum. The sculptures are restored so that one can see the old and the new blended together. In other words, the statues have been added to so that they look as they did in their original form. This work, however, is noticeably conspicuous and adds to the overall beauty and meaning of the exhibit.

[Anonymous]

One of my favorite exhibits I read about was a study in confusion: it had script that was unintelligible in every language. The point of discussion revolves around the fact that Chinese think it is written in non-Chinese and non-Chinese think it is written in Chinese. This interesting art exhibit reflects on the misunderstandings of China by non-Chinese. Many place onto China feelings of exoticism. This work mocks such generalizations and overly fanciful recreations. At the same time, it also has a positive message: we will never know what is beyond the limit's of mankind's knowledge. It raises questions about the assumptions we make and one is left different after this experience.

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