Reviewed by: Alice Hunter

New China, New Art is a richly illustrated book, which examines Chinese avant-garde art and its place within contemporary fine art discourse. With China already at the forefront of consciousness given the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this is a well-timed release and in retrospect, might easily have been named, Why China? Why Now?
Richard Vine, the book’s editor, discusses whether Westerners can in fact understand Chinese contemporary art at all and if so, to what degree. How much of a role does cultural and social heritage play in understanding anyway, and given the amount of parody and borrowing from Western ideology, might not a Western perspective be an aid to understanding rather than a limitation?

Vine divides New China, New Art into sections according to medium: painting, sculpture & installation, performance, photography and video, while at the same time remaining artist-centric in approach. Some 125 Chinese artists are featured overall, including details on each of their backgrounds and careers.

However, it would be impossible to produce a book of this kind without addressing the social history of China and the repression under which artists have traditionally produced their art. While covering the major events such as the effects of Tiananmen Square, New China, New Art intertwines fascinating and lesser known events such as the Shanghai Biennale of 2004, in which a group show of abstract works was open for only four hours before being closed by authorities.

Chinese artists, says Vine, are unique in that they have undergone virtually overnight, a complete shift from a period of enforced people’s art to that of eclectic postmodernism. This was so, writes Vine, without ever passing through a period of high-minded modernism, as in the Western world. Thus, the effects of the ‘capitalism yes; democracy no’ stance taken by the country’s governments, can also be seen in the contemporary art market – the importance of the flow of capital in this domain should not be underestimated.

New China, New Art is a compelling read and will appeal, I hope, to a wide rather than niche audience. For it should not only be of interest to the art enthusiast or academic, but anyone seeking an introduction to or a greater understanding of the multi-faceted history and culture of a country that we seem to learn more about each day.