중국 현대미술의 문화정체성에 대한 미술사적 고찰: 1978년 이후 정치사회적 변화와 미술의 관계

Abstract

The purpose of this study aims to understand the formation of the cultural identity which has 'hybridity' embodying locality and globality in Chinese contemporary art since 1978. Through analyzing concrete art works, I searched for the process of obtaining Chinese cultural identity with a close interrelation between sudden change in socio-political context and art. In the first chapter, following the argument of Michael Sullivan, I list the reason why Chinese art should be deindividualized after birth of the P.R.China with its' stubborn socialist policies. Chinese art world developing socialist realism had had an intimate relationship with the politics using art as a tool for strong socialism. These socio-political characters are the base for advancing the Chinese own locality. Especially through the Cultural Revolution, artists worked all together making huge art projects without their own names. The political shift in these generations brought on the economic reformation which gave rise to Chinese art since 1978. After easing socialist restriction with the open-door policy, artists who had been neglected for 30 years were faced with gaining freedom of creation like ‘Stars’ in 1979. In the 1980s, Chinese locality materializing in the socio-political context had been changed by an active influx of western civilization including ideology and culture. It gave chance to Chinese artists to come in contact with various western schools. It was the inflow that brought many kinds of changes in Chinese society and gave birth to the first Chinese avant-garde movement starting with the ’85 Movement’in the 1980s. The 1989 Movement for Democracy, one of the Tiananmen Square protests, spread antipathy and mutual distrust throughout the country. It encouraged antiestablishment avant-garde art, and ‘Chinese New Art: Post 1989’ exhibition by Li Xianting introduced ‘Cynical Realism’ and ‘Political Pop’ which were the first step of Chinese art to the international art world. The forced dispersion of the Old Summer Palace, known as the Garden of Perfect Clarity, which was the Mecca for liberal intellectuals caused diversification of contemporary art. In accordance with an article by Chinese critic Li Xianting, I have arranged the five tendencies of Chinese contemporary art in the 1990s. These five characteristics are the base of reading postmodernism in Chinese contemporary art. Lately, there are lots of debates among scholars from east and west about whether or not Chinese art has postmodernity. In the third chaper, I analyzed the on-going debates through comparisons of the perspective of Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu and Wang Ning. I described the Chinese cultural identity focusing on Cai Guo-Qiang’s works embodying both locality and globality. Finally, I explained Chinese art as one of the leading forms of contemporary art by analyzing his works, the first Chinese contemporary artist to have a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. In this development, I could see how the Chinese art world achieved its locality which accepted capitalistic market systems in socialist society. Chinese contemporary art has been characterized as having globality even though it does not coincide with western avant-garde and postmodernism. It is significant that my study has understood Chinese cultural identity through on-going exhibitions and cutting-edge artists based on earlier studies from east and west. Chinese hybrid art has succeeded in both the art market and academics. Although Chinese contemporary art has been too commercialized, it would be one of the concrete examples of a good model for Asian art.