Chinese contemporary art is a wide-scope concept. The world "identity", a terminology first used in the global Cultural Study Wave, refers to the perspective from which cultural characteristics of an ethnic group or a special community is analyzed. The cultural identity of Chinese contemporary art here means a fresh perspective from which Chinese culture and arts are viewed. It is necessary to discuss characteristics of Chinese culture when Chinese contemporary art has become a window through which people from the outside world get to know about China.
First, the ecosystem of Chinese contemporary art. As we all know, an intermediary art operation system is required when an artwork is turned into a cultural commodity or between creation by artists and acceptance by the society. But for many years in China this system is a uniform operation tightly controlled by the state. Except a few state-owned art museums, artists found no other places to display their creations to general public and no dealers or collectors transacted artworks as consumer products.
China's art ecosystem has undergone structural changes since the 1990s. The construction of art museums, both state-owned and private ones, has seen rapid growth, thanks to the importance attached by governments at various levels. 5 to 8 new museums will be completed in Beijing before the 2008 Olympic Games and the figure for Shanghai will reach at least 30 before the 2010 World Exposition. China is embracing an era of art museums in the 21st century. Second, art creation has become an occupation that artists can freely choose to take at their own will. We can see it from the 798 Art District in Beijing. Many studios, galleries and art organizations thrive there, forming a small ecosystem ranging from art creation to art display and transaction. Third, art market is growing in an unusually fast speed and art consumption events like gallery expositions or auction fairs have become major attractions in China. Every year at least two large-scale art expositions and no less than eight important art auction fairs take place in Beijing. For instance, the completion ceremony of New Poly Plaza, a new landmark in the eastern part of Beijing, was celebrated in the form of an art auction fair. Artworks have become new priorities of private investment in China and many believe that investing in art is the quickest way to make profits.
In this triangle structure, art museums play an important role, because they serve as the largest platform that provides cultural service to general public. And I think the museum system in USA has much experience for Chinese colleagues to draw upon from in this regard. In fact, we have had frequent discussions about how Chinese museums today should address the needs of contemporary art development and held many meetings in NAMOC discussing what we should do in the buoyant context of world contemporary art. Last year NAMOC hosted a forum for Asian museum directors which received support of Chinese Cultural Minister Mr. Sun Jiazheng and even drew interest of Premier Wen Jiabo. We believe that art museums cannot attract the audience from various circles and meet diversified needs for art unless a museum culture is developed.
For this end, we should give priority to the following three aspects.
First, exhibitions should be designed in accordance with various needs of the society and structural richness should be given much emphasis. For example, NAMOC exhibits a wide scope of exhibitions every year, including traditional art, folk art and contemporary art. This diverse exhibition portfolio helps to nurture Chinese people's habit to visit art museums on a regular basis. The total attendance has amounted to 330,000 in the first five months this year.
Second, educational programs should be launched in art museums. Every weekend NAMOC hosts lectures delivered by experts in visual art. In addition, we have developed a wide scope of outreach events for children and more than 200 volunteers serve as visitor guides. For exhibitions of special subjects, we organize targeted visitors to watch. For example, peasant workers and their children were invited to view the exhibition "Farmers · Farmers" last winter in NAMOC. In China many peasants have left their homes in the countryside to find employment opportunities in cities and they are called "peasant workers". It has now become a major social phenomenon and the government is making every possible effort to solve social and economic problems rising from this urbanization process. But to meeting cultural needs of these migrant workers, art museums are absolutely required as important stakeholders. We have put equal emphasis on art education of college students. Under the sponsorship of Bohai Bank, we provided free access to the Guggenheim exhibition "300 Years of American Art" in NAMOC to 100,000 Chinese college students who discussed about characteristics of American art and why college students need art during the exhibition.
Third, China in its opening process needs to assimilate the best of foreign cultures. With the support of Chinese Cultural Ministry, we have established exchange and cooperation relationship with museums of many countries in the world, such as the Pompidou Center in Paris, Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art from US and Tate Art Museum in London. Two weeks ago NAMOC signed cooperation agreements with three German museums under the presence of Chinese President Hu Jintao and German President Horst Koelher during Hu's visit to Germany. In addition, NAMOC hosts five to six large-scale international exhibitions even' year and meanwhile presents Chinese art abroad. For example, four NAMOC exhibitions will be exhibited in the second half of this year in South Korea, Japan, Russia and Austria respectively.
While China's art museums are prospering, they are faced with problems, one of which is the shortage of professionals. For many years courses on museum studies and art management have yet to be offered in China's institutions of higher learning. But US has notable advantages in this regard. I suggest that China and US should launch cooperation programs in training art museum professionals, which will be beneficial to the development of Chinese museums as well as China's cultural exchange with the rest of the world.
Second, evaluate the development of Chinese contemporary art from the perspective of China's own cultural context.
I. We should have a thorough knowledge of Chinese art in the 20th century before we try to understand Chinese contemporary art. Chinese art began to experience collisions and clashes with Western art from the early 20th century. Robert Hughes used the phrase "new shock" to describe the evolutions and changes that modernism triggered out in the early 1920s in West. For the 20th-centui-y China, modernism brought about so-called "Western shock". I notice that many Western friends, no matter what fields they are involved in — political, economic or cultural, all show respect for Chinese classical art but have inadequate knowledge about Chinese art since the 20th century. In many works on the history of world art, Chinese art was only introduced in the ancient-period part and the 20th-century part is dominated by the Western art, in particular, modern art. Chinese scholars, however, hold that the 20th-century Chinese art has distinctive modem characteristics that differ from Western modem art. For instance, art and tribulation, art and war, art and revolution and art and China's construction, are all fresh cultural subjects that feature Chinese characteristics and are based on realities of China. NAMOC has now a collection of nearly 100,000 artworks of such subjects. I also notice that American universities have added the subject of globalism to their art history curriculum since the 1980s and many American museums have begun to study Chinese art in the 20th century. Therefore China and US have worthy cooperation programs in the field of art history research, in particular, between their museums, that is, reviewing modem Chinese art from a global perspective.
II. Chinese contemporary' art is seeing a dynamic momentum of development, particularly characterized by globalization and urbanization process's impacts on contemporary artists. Many artists live in cities and continue to portray urban changes in their creations. In addition, some artists dwell in the conjunction areas between cities and the countryside and thus can comment on urban changes from a distance. For example, there are many artist villages in the suburb of Beijing, among which Songzhuang Village houses at least one thousand artists and their studios. For three consecutive sessions, Shanghai Biennale features urban subjects of architecture, new media and design, discussing about cultural transformation in the context of urbanization.
III. Visual characteristics of contemporary art are also worthy subjects to be discussed. Chinese artists today, like artists from other nations, are also using new media and material in their creations. But their creations are valuable because they are based on the artists' indigenous life experience in China.
Contemporary art must address common cultural experiences of mankind as a whole today; sometimes contemporary artists have sensitive foresights. But Chinese contemporary art can never become simple copies of the international trend. It should be based on diverse social realities of China and only by doing that can it contribute fresh Chinese experience to the international community.
Chinese artists learn international art, in particular, Western art both intensively and extensively, while the international art community's knowledge about Chinese art is far from adequate. I believe that only when artists and scholars from the rest of the world has as thorough understanding about Chinese art as their Chinese counterparts can Chinese contemporary art be truly recognized from a cultural perspective. For that end, I hope art organizations and artists from China and US can have more opportunities to discuss the topic of contemporary art. Undoubtedly, today's exchange is a dialogue with constructive importance.
I. We should have a thorough knowledge of Chinese art in the 20th century before we try to understand Chinese contemporary art. Chinese art began to experience collisions and clashes with Western art from the early 20th century. Robert Hughes used the phrase "new shock" to describe the evolutions and changes that modernism triggered out in the early 1920s in West. For the 20th-centui-y China, modernism brought about so-called "Western shock". I notice that many Western friends, no matter what fields they are involved in — political, economic or cultural, all show respect for Chinese classical art but have inadequate knowledge about Chinese art since the 20th century. In many works on the history of world art, Chinese art was only introduced in the ancient-period part and the 20th-century part is dominated by the Western art, in particular, modern art. Chinese scholars, however, hold that the 20th-century Chinese art has distinctive modem characteristics that differ from Western modem art. For instance, art and tribulation, art and war, art and revolution and art and China's construction, are all fresh cultural subjects that feature Chinese characteristics and are based on realities of China. NAMOC has now a collection of nearly 100,000 artworks of such subjects. I also notice that American universities have added the subject of globalism to their art history curriculum since the 1980s and many American museums have begun to study Chinese art in the 20th century. Therefore China and US have worthy cooperation programs in the field of art history research, in particular, between their museums, that is, reviewing modem Chinese art from a global perspective.
II. Chinese contemporary' art is seeing a dynamic momentum of development, particularly characterized by globalization and urbanization process's impacts on contemporary artists. Many artists live in cities and continue to portray urban changes in their creations. In addition, some artists dwell in the conjunction areas between cities and the countryside and thus can comment on urban changes from a distance. For example, there are many artist villages in the suburb of Beijing, among which Songzhuang Village houses at least one thousand artists and their studios. For three consecutive sessions, Shanghai Biennale features urban subjects of architecture, new media and design, discussing about cultural transformation in the context of urbanization.
III. Visual characteristics of contemporary art are also worthy subjects to be discussed. Chinese artists today, like artists from other nations, are also using new media and material in their creations. But their creations are valuable because they are based on the artists' indigenous life experience in China.
Contemporary art must address common cultural experiences of mankind as a whole today; sometimes contemporary artists have sensitive foresights. But Chinese contemporary art can never become simple copies of the international trend. It should be based on diverse social realities of China and only by doing that can it contribute fresh Chinese experience to the international community.
Chinese artists learn international art, in particular, Western art both intensively and extensively, while the international art community's knowledge about Chinese art is far from adequate. I believe that only when artists and scholars from the rest of the world has as thorough understanding about Chinese art as their Chinese counterparts can Chinese contemporary art be truly recognized from a cultural perspective. For that end, I hope art organizations and artists from China and US can have more opportunities to discuss the topic of contemporary art. Undoubtedly, today's exchange is a dialogue with constructive importance.
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