Modern
Chinese Artists, A Biographical Dictionary
by Michael Sullivan
University of California Press, Berkeley,
2006
274 pp., illus. 80 b/w. Trade, $34.95
ISBN: 0-520-24449-8.
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Belgium
stefaan.vanryssen@hogent.be
Western attitude to modern Chinese art
began to change in the 1950s with
the acquisition of fine collections by
curators in France and Switzerland. Before
that, practically only safe traditional
painting, guohua, which fit
in the global arts landscape as exotic
and oriental, was shown.
In the late 70s, things changed
rapidly. The United States government
lifted the embargo on the import of Chinese
goods in 1972, and in China the cultural
climate began to thaw after the death
of Mao Zedong in 1976. In Europe and America,
museums began to collect modern Chinese
art, galleries sprang up, and major works
were auctioned. At present, even the least
informed art lovers or exhibition goers
has at least vague ideas about the vitality
of the Chinese art scene, even if they
cant remember a single artists
name or recognise any specific work. When
asked, most people will probably point
to Shanghai as the main center of production,
and they might even have visited the Biennial
there, but a further understanding of
what is actually going on remains the
realm of a limited group of specialised
scholars, curators, and collectors. Again,
however, things are rapidly changing.
In the wake of the booming economy and
the opening up of the Chinese market,
Western attention is massively drawn to
the arts as well, and the traditional
opinion that Chinese artists are either
traditional if excellent - landscape
painters or meagre followers of American
and European trends are rapidly evaporating.
Michael Sullivan has been following Chinese
artists since the Second World War and
published a first biographical index in
1959 (Chinese Art in the Twentieth
Century). He had left China in 1946
and got most of his information from first-hand
knowledge and from his correspondence
with his Chinese painter friend Pang Xunqin.
The book listed 261 artists. Only a handful
of biographical books have been published
since, and very few of them in English.
Sullivans Art and Artists of
Twentieth-Century China (1996) already
included more than 800 entries. Well aware
of the important omissions and a number
of errors, he set out to revise the list
and chose to publish it in a separate
volume for the use of scholars, curators,
collectors, museums, dealers, and auction
houses.
"The artists chosen for inclusion
[
] are those who attained some reputation
in China in the twentieth century and
opening years of the twenty-first, [
]
and those whose works are likely to appear
in collections, exhibitions, and auctions
abroad. Only artists who grew up, or were
trained, in China are included, even if
they subsequently went abroad to work
during, for instance, the diaspora of
the 1980s and 90s." (p. xi-xii).
The entries are listed alphabetically
on both Chinese last names and Westernised
versions (e.g. Bao Ailun is also listed
under Ellen Pau). Names are also given
in Chinese characters. Most entries include
place and year of birth, place of training,
place of residence, major exhibitions,
and a general indication of what kind
of works the artist has been producing,
e.g. oil painting, guohua, installation,
etc. A very helpful list of the names
of the principal art academies has been
included as well, since they have a tendency
to change names with every turn of the
political tide in the country. Some 80
pictures illustrate the book.