AAA presents a selection of digitised archival documentation surrounding the 1989 ‘China/Avant-Garde Exhibition’ in Beijing—a historically significant contemporary art exhibition initiated by artists. It was one of the earliest endeavours to comprehensively showcase experimental artwork in a national art institute in China.
 
The concept of the exhibition stemmed from the Zhuhai Conference in 1986 after attending artists viewed the ‘Large-Scale Slide Exhibition of New Wave Art’. An exhibition of original works of contemporary art was subsequently planned for July 1987 at the Beijing Agricultural Exhibition Centre, but was postponed due to the Anti-Bourgeois Liberalism Campaign of the same year. Discussions around the exhibition resumed in 1988 at the China Modern Art Conference in Huangshan, and in February 1989, the landmark ‘China/Avant-Garde Exhibition’ finally opened at the National Art Museum of China.

Drawing material from various AAA archives, in particular the repositories of Lu Peng 呂澎,  Fei Dawei 費大為, and Wang Youshen 王友身, the selection below covers the historic exhibition from its conceptualisation, to its development and reception. The archival documentation is accompanied by a corresponding shortlist for further reading.

 

 

’85青年美術思潮大型幻燈展暨學術討論會簡報

Fine Arts in China (1986 No. 28)  中國美術報 (1986年第28期)

China/Avant-Garde Exhibition — Catalogue, 中國現代藝術展 — 展覽目錄

China/Avant-Garde Exhibition — Exhibition Information (English), 中國現代藝術展 — 展覽資訊 (英文)

Commemorative Envelope of China/Avant-Garde Exhibition, 《中國現代藝術展》紀念封

Mirror to Analyze the World: The Century’s Final Volume (Exhibition View) (Set of 9 Photographs), 〈析世鉴 — 世纪末卷〉(展覽現場) (9張照片)

Sample 1 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片1 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 2 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片2 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 3 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片3 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 4 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片4 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 5 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片5 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 6 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片6 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 7 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片7 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 8 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片8 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 9 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片9 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 10 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片10 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 11 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片11 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 12 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片12 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 13 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片13 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 14 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片14 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 15 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片15 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 16 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片16 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 17 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片17 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 18 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片18 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 19 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片19 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 20 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片20 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 21 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片21 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 22 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片22 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 23 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片23 · 中國現代藝術展

Sample 24 · China Avant-Garde, 樣片24 · 中國現代藝術展

Towards the 1990s: China/Avant-Garde Documents Exhibition — Catalogue, 90年代に向けて: 中国現代芸術資料展

Special Editions on China Avant/Garde Exhibition, 中國現代藝術展 China/Avant-Garde 專版

Interview: Zhou Yan (English subtitles)

 

 

Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents

Total Modernity and the Avant-Garde in Twentieth-Century Chinese Art

Fine Arts in China (1989 No. 6)

Fine Arts in China (1989 No. 13)

Hsiung Shih Art Monthly (All Holdings), 雄獅美術

Study of Contemporary Chinese Art: The Significance Does Not Lie in Art, 《中國當代美術研究》系列: 重要的不是藝術

Tendency Quarterly (All Holdings), 傾向: 文學人文雜誌

Xiao Lu, ‘Gunshot: About the Performance Work “Dialogue” at The National Art Museum of China in 1989’, Frontiers, 2005 no. 5, 8 September 2005, pp. 163–169.

肖魯，〈槍擊：關於1989年中國美術館槍擊作品《對話》的說明〉，《天涯》，2005年第5期，2005年9月8日，頁163–169。

Action in China: Performance Art from 1980s to 1990s, 中國行動: 八十年代到九十年代的行為藝術

China/Avant-Garde, 中國現代藝術展

Avant-Garde China: 20 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art