Curator: Huang Liaoyuan
Opening Time: Jan 24th 3 - 6pm, 2015
Exhibition Duration: Jan 24th – Mar 20th, 2015
Venue: Beijing Art Now Gallery - Building E, Red Yard No.1, Cao Chang Di, Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R. China
Tel: +86-10-51273292
Fax: +86-10-51273291
Email: angallery@vip.sina.com
www.beijingartnow.com
Exhibition Introduction:
There is no doubt about the importance of the first wave of China’s avant-garde art movement, represented by the “Star Art Group” and “Trendy 85”, which has been talked about for thousands of times in recent years. However, the essential exploration of China’s contemporary art mainly started in the 1990s. If you think that China’s contemporary art had its own airplane and parking apron in the 1980s, then you may say that it had its own runway and was ready for a flight trial in the 1990s. The 1990s witnessed the appearance of “Sharp Criticism” of Guangyi Wang, “Big Family” of Xiaogang Zhang, “Bare Head” of Lijun Fang, “Rotten Meat, Wicked People and Disgusting Scenes” of Wei Liu, “House of Fortunetellers” of Yongping Huang and “Explosion” of Guoqiang Cai, as well as the first group of Chinese artists who went overseas to attend some international events like the Venice Biennale, San Paolo Biennale and Kassel Document Expo. Besides, it was also a time when some now-famous artists were studying and digesting the concept and techniques of art and then presenting their masterpieces. So the study of the Chinese contemporary art in the 1990s should become a new topic as well as an important and indispensable part of history. You will find that everything you can see now was already there in the 1990s.
This exhibition presents Jinsong’s creative practice in the 1990s from multi perspectives and angles. You can read a clear trace from the experimental works in particular (some are left uncompleted), and the trace of history is as obvious as the footprints in the snow. Instead of showing Jinsong’s oil painting works, this exhibition creatively shows 14 pieces of rich-colour paintings made by the artist before his oil paintings (some are remade or replicated because the originals were lost or destroyed). These pieces are truly his early works, since they were made between 1988 and 1990. Compared to oil paintings, these paper works are more relaxed and more experimental. Based on materialism, they also borrow some modernist mode. These works are highly valued not only because Jinsong does not have a lot of paper works, but also because they are closely connected with his famous oil works. Instead of showing the future-mindedness, depth and unique sense of forms of Jinsong’s works, I just want to give a brief introduction of the origin of this exhibition, and call for your attention to the development of China’s avant-garde art in the 1990s.