Artist as Chronicler

Kunming-based artist Mao Xuhui is regarded as a leader of the avant-garde art community in southwest China. Since 2004, AAA has been working with Mao to scan and catalogue his comprehensive personal archive documenting his artistic career and activities over the past three decades. In this talk, Mao Xuhui will take his archive as a point of departure to discuss his artistic development within the field and particular moments in history since the 1980s with curator Huang Du and AAA researcher Anthony Yung.

Mao graduated from the Oil Painting Department at the Yunnan Academy of Fine Arts in 1982 and became the art director of a film company in Kunming. Mao, along with Zhang Xiaogang, Hou Wenyi, Zhang Long, Pan Dehai, and others, organised one of the first self-funded exhibitions in China, titled the 'New Concrete Image' (Shanghai, 1985). This exhibition was later shown in Nanjing, Kunming, and Chongqing, with the inclusion of additional works by young artists from the Southwestern region of China. In 1986, Mao introduced the works of artists from the Southwestern region at the 'Large-Scale Slide Exhibition of '85 New Wave Art' at the 1986 Zhuhai Conference, and with Pan Dehai, Zhang Xiaogang, and Ye Yongqing formed the Southwestern Art Research Group. Works by Mao, Pan, Zhang, and Ye were shown at the 'China/Avant-Garde Exhibition' in Beijing (National Art Museum of China, 1989). Mao continues to work as an artist and exhibits widely.

This talk is supported by Schoeni Art Gallery. 

Relevant content

Special233
Mao Xuhui Archive 毛旭輝檔案
Collections

Mao Xuhui Archive 毛旭輝檔案