This visually stunning book focuses on the rebirth of Chinese art in the twentieth century under the influence of Western art and culture. Michael Sullivan, recognized throughout the world as a leading scholar of Chinese art, vividly documents the conflicting pulls of traditional and Western values on Chinese art and provides 364 illustrations, in color and black-and-white, to show the great range of artistic expression and the historical processes that occurred within various movements. A substantial biographical index of twentieth-century Chinese artists is a valuable addition to the text. Sullivan discusses artists and their work against China's background of oppression and relaxation, despair and hope. He expertly conveys the diverse and at times bizarre intertwining of Chinese cultural history and art during this century. Included are the intense debates between traditionalists and reformers, the creation of the first art schools, and the birth of the idea—shocking in ethnocentric China—that art is a world language that obliterates all frontiers. The scholarly traditions of classical Chinese painting, the belated discovery of Western modernism, the artistic upheaval under Communism, and China's rethinking of the very nature of art all have a place in Sullivan's fascinating history. Michael Sullivan has known many of the major figures in China's modern art movement of the 1930s and 1940s and has also gained the confidence of younger artists who rose to prominence following the 1979 "Peking Spring." This long-awaited book—richly documented and abundantly illustrated—is a capstone to Sullivan's work and will be enthusiastically welcomed by art lovers everywhere.

Richly illustrated with 200 black-and-white and 32 color plates, this stimulating collection surveys the full range of 20th-century Chinese painting, covering all the schools and major artists, both within the People's Republic and elsewhere. Chinese artists now draw their inspirations from an amazing variety of subjects--airplanes and automobiles, Vietnamese refugees and Beijing opera, ancient cave murals and historical figures--and they have developed new techniques and formats that have greatly expanded the range of Chinese paintings. Their work reveals how traditional techniques, when reintroduced into unexpected contexts, can bring about strikingly new results. In light of the tremendous variety of artistic impulses and stylistic approaches that exist in 20th-century Chinese painting, and the rapidity with which these changes have occurred, it is quite remarkable that China's artistic tradition has not only been able to sustain itself, but continues to evolve in new and exciting directions. This beautiful volume captures the vibrancy of a national art that is stunning in its complexity and diversity.

A groundbreaking book that describes a distinctively Chinese avant-gardism and a modernity that unifies art, politics, and social life. To the extent that Chinese contemporary art has become a global phenomenon, it is largely through the groundbreaking exhibitions curated by Gao Minglu: "China/Avant-Garde" (Beijing, 1989), "Inside Out: New Chinese Art" (Asia Society, New York, 1998), and "The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art" (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 2005) among them. As the first Chinese writer to articulate a distinctively Chinese avant-gardism and modernity—one not defined by Western chronology or formalism—Gao Minglu is largely responsible for the visibility of Chinese art in the global art scene today. Contemporary Chinese artists tend to navigate between extremes, either embracing or rejecting a rich classical tradition. Indeed, for Chinese artists, the term "modernity" refers not to a new epoch or aesthetic but to a new nation—modernityinextricably connects politics to art. It is this notion of "total modernity" that forms the foundation of the Chinese avant-garde aesthetic, and of this book. Gao examines the many ways Chinese artists engaged with this intrinsic total modernity, including the '85 Movement, political pop, cynical realism, apartment art, maximalism, and the museum age, encompassing the emergenceof local art museums and organizations as well as such major events as the Shanghai Biennial. He describes the inner logic of the Chinese context while locating the art within the framework of a worldwide avant-garde. He vividly describes the Chinese avant-garde's embrace of a modernity that unifies politics, aesthetics, and social life, blurring the boundaries between abstraction, conception, and representation. Lavishly illustrated with color images throughout, this book will be a touchstone for all considerations of Chinese contemporary art.

An important reference source for scholars and students of modern Chinese art, collectors, museums and libraries, dealers and auction houses. It includes biographical entries for approximately 800 Chinese artists who grew up or were trained in China and who are likely to be represented in collections, exhibitions, and auctions within and outside China.

Lü Peng, China's foremost modern art historian, incisively analyzes developments in Chinese art from the late Qing Dynasty through to the opening years of the 21st century in this new revised edition of A History of Art in 20th-Century China, published for the first time simultaneously in French and English editions. The art that emerged over the course of a troubled century and more of Chinese history reveals a complex evolution with intrinsic connections to contemporary life. Lü Peng ably charts that evolution, not only in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, but also in important centers such as Paris and Tokyo. This comprehensive narrative will remain for many years the reference to which those seeking knowledge of this history will inevitably turn.

The first comprehensive assemblage in the West of paintings on this subject, the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection comprises works in the classical Chinese medium of ink on paper and in the traditional formats of scrolls, album leaves, and fans."--BOOK JACKET.

Sullivan has thoroughly revised this classic history of Chinese art which covers the period from Neolithic times to the 1990s. 224 photos. 164 color illustrations. 14 maps.