The Zheng Shengtian Archive is a comprehensive collection documenting the life and contributions of Zheng Shengtian, a seminal Chinese educator, artist, and curator born in 1938. The archive, consisting of over 1,500 scanned and annotated records, offers insights into his advocacy of experimental art in China from the 1950s to the early 2000s. It includes paper documents, photographs, slides, and audio-visual materials that chronicle significant historical events such as the Cultural Revolution, the ’85 New Wave, and post-Tiananmen developments. Zheng's tenure as Professor and Chair of the Oil Painting Department, and Head of International Exchange at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, highlights his influence in fostering international exchange and modernising art education in China. The digitisation of this archive, part of AAA's 'Materials of the Future' project, began in 2008 and includes supplementary materials and a detailed video interview to contextualise his extensive career.

Biographical Note

Zheng Shengtian was born in Henan to a family of intellectuals in 1938. His art education began when he was accepted into the Fine Arts Department of the Yucai School in Shanghai in 1949, and subsequently to the then East-China Campus of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou in 1953, (later renamed Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, ZAFA) where he taught upon graduation in 1958. In 1962, Zheng pursued further studies at the No. 3 Painting Studio to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he was supervised by Dong Xiwen. His teaching was halted when the Cultural Revolution hit China in 1966 and later resumed in 1977 when the Revolution ended. Zheng was appointed Chairman of the Oil Painting Department and the Director of International Affairs in the end of 1983, during which he facilitated revisions to the study model, additions to the library collection and international exchanges. One of the highlights in his tenure was his government-funded studies in the United States. First of his kind, Zheng spent two years at the University of Minnesota as Visiting Professor and travelled throughout North America and Europe from 1981 to 1983. The collection consists of invaluable slides and reports that Zheng brought back from his expedition.

Around the same time, Zheng became involved in bridging international connections for Chinese artists, including his facilitation of the establishment of The Institute of Art Tapestry Varbanov, founded by Bulgarian artist Maryn Varbanov to introduce tapestry art to China, in 1986, and launching the International Institute for the Arts (IIA), a charity aimed at encouraging bilateral integration between Chinese artists and their counterparts in Europe and the US, in 1987. Since the 1980s, Zheng organised, hosted and took part in many lectures and conferences about Chinese art. This includes the Oil Painting Art Conference in Huangshan (1985) and a symposium at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena (1987).

After Zheng’s relocation to Vancouver in 1990 following the Tiananmen Incident (1989), he has been devoted to the promotion of Chinese new art in the West. He brought IIA and San Diego State University together in the co-organisation of the inaugural Chinese Art Seminar/Workshop which culminated in a group show at the San Diego State University Art Gallery. Zheng also held many positions in local cultural organisations and arranged global exchange programmes to advocate Chinese art. These positions include Chairman of Chinese Canadian Artists Federation in Vancouver (1993), founding member and Board Director of Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Centre A) (1999 - 2011), Director of the Art Beatus Gallery (1996) in Vancouver, founded by the Annie Wong Foundation, where he later organised the exhibition Jiangnan: Modern and Contemporary Art from South of the Yangzi River (1998). In 2000, Zheng led a cohort of international curators to visit different cities in China (Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou), as well as Taipei and Hong Kong. Apart from contributing frequently to periodicals and catalogues related to contemporary Chinese and Asian art, Zheng also co-founded Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (2002), the first English language magazine on contemporary Chinese art, and initiated publications like Art · Market with Lu Peng and established the bilingual periodical Art China Newsletter in 1991.

Zheng’s active role in bridging Chinese art with the West extends beyond the current archive at AAA. After the year 2000, he shifted his focus to research-based curatorial projects, many of which involved his colleagues and students from the Academy. Some of the highlights are Shanghai Modern at the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich, an extensive retrospective of Chinese art from the 1930s to the 1940s rarely shown in Europe (2004); the Shanghai Biennale (2004); China Trade (2006), a six-artist group show at the Vancouver Internal Centre for Contemporary Asian Art; Landmark: Mapping Contemporary Chinese Art (2017 to 2018) at Beijing’s Guardian Art Center, an assembly of monumental installations from 15 established contemporary artists; and Winds from Fusang: Mexico and China in 20th Century, a touring exhibition investigating China-Mexico connections at the USC Pacific Asia Museum and the Diego Rivera Mural Museum (2017 to 2018).

Description of Series

The contents of the Zheng Shengtian archive are divided into seven categories according to their relation to his work. One of the collection’s highlights are the rare exhibition catalogues published alongside non-Chinese art exhibitions in China after 1949, the oldest dating back to 1955. Most of these catalogues had low circulations and are therefore seldom seen today.

1. Learning & Teaching (1960-2008): materials collected from the days of Zheng’s teaching at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts including over 1,500 manuscripts, correspondences, newspaper clippings, planning documents, lecture notes and photographic records
2. Promoting Chinese Contemporary Art (1986-2001): dedicated to Zheng’s contribution to promoting Chinese art to an international audience including letters, proposals, fax, application forms, photographs, catalogues, invitation letters, writings and press clippings of exhibitions, conferences, events and publication projects from the 80s to the 90s
3. Research on Chinese Art in the Socialist Period (1955-2009): materials that record Zheng’s own research into Chinese art during the Socialist Period, including exhibition catalogues, comics, newspaper cuttings, printed newsletters, written reports, photographs and videos of foreign art exhibitions in China and art produced during the Cultural Revolution
4. Zheng Shengtian Personal Files (1959 to 2007): Zheng’s CV, images of his artworks, documentation of his projects and exhibitions, writings and translations, news clippings and interviews, photographs and correspondences
5. Artist Files (1981-2001): correspondence, news clippings, CVs and proposals Zheng collected in relation to artists, half of whom were his students or colleagues from ZAFA
6. Event Files (1980-1993): newspaper clippings, catalogues, photographs, invitation, drafts and readings from events Zheng visited, organised or paid attention to
7. Correspondence (1982-2000): correspondence between Zheng and acquaintances from China and abroad, on matters not belonging to the above categories

Dates (Inclusive)

1955-2009

Languages

Materials are mostly in Chinese (traditional and simplified) and English.

Collection Access

Open for research. Onsite-only and restricted materials – including but not limited correspondences, exhibition catalogues, manuscripts, artwork documentation and unpublished writings – are available for consultation at AAA Libraries. Please make an appointment at library@aaa.org.hk at least one week in advance.

Collection Use

Subject to all copyright laws. Permission to publish materials must be obtained from copyright owners. Please contact library@aaa.org.hk for further enquiries.

History and Project Team

The digitisation of this archive began in the summer of 2008 and constitutes a part of ‘Materials of the Future’, a larger research and archiving project focusing on art in China in the 1980s undertaken by AAA since 2005. In addition to the digitisation and annotation of these materials, AAA also collected supplementary materials and conducted a detailed video interview with Zheng to contextualise the collection within a broader view of his career. As Zheng’s résumé of activities, and thus his repository of documentation, continues to grow, AAA anticipates the potential of future additions to the existing collection.

The Zheng Shengtian Archive was acquired and processed by AAA Researcher Anthony Yung.

Credit

The Zheng Shengtian Archive project was generously supported by The Rober H. N. Ho Family Foundation, The W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, Ilyas and Mara Khan, and Foundation of the Arts Initiatives.