Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary
Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990 and Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents
Asia Art Archive www.aaa.org.hk The Museum of Modern Art www.moma.org
Asia Art Archive (AAA) and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) celebrate the completion of two documentary projects that are essential to a deeper understanding of the history of contemporary Chinese art: AAA’s Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990 and MoMA’s publication of Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents. The two organizations will co- launch both projects in major cities in China and in New York in the fall of 2010 with a series of public programs. These milestone projects focus on the dramatic development and growth of Chinese contemporary art over the last three decades by documenting, collecting and translating critical discussions, primary materials and key texts.
Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990
The 1980s was a seminal period in China’s recent art history. During this time, many of China’s most celebrated artists attended art academies, held their first exhibitions, and developed the intellectual foundation for the art practices that have contributed to their present success. In order to foster research into this transformative moment in Chinese history, AAA has undertaken a four year focused archiving project; collecting, indexing and preserving rare documentary and primary source materials. As a result, AAA has collected hundreds of texts published during the 1980s, completed 75 video-taped interviews, produced a documentary film, and digitized the personal archives of renowned artists and curators, including Fei Dawei, Zhang Xiaogang, Zheng Shengtian, Lu Peng, Mao Xuhui and Wu Shanzhuan, to name a few. With a total of over 70,000 digital documents, AAA now maintains the world’s largest and most systematically organized archive of documentary material on the period. This scholarly resource will be freely accessible and open to the public from AAA’s physical premises as well as through a dedicated web portal www.china1980s.org starting September 2010.
Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents
Despite the liveliness and creativity of avant-garde Chinese art in the post-Mao era and its prominence in the world of international contemporary art, a systematic introduction to this important work in any Western language is still lacking. Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents remedies this situation by bringing together carefully selected primary texts in English translation. The documents included range from the manifestos of avant-garde groups, prefaces to important exhibitions, writings by representative artists, important critical, and analytical essays and others. Arranged in chronological order, the texts guide readers through the development of avant-garde Chinese art from 1976 until 2006. Edited by Wu Hung, Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia and Consulting Curator at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, with the assistance of Peggy Wang, Assistant Professor at Denison University, Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents is published by The Museum of Modern Art and will be available at MoMA Stores and online at www.MoMAStore.org in September 2010. It is distributed to the trade by Duke University Press, www.dukeupress.edu.
Schedule of Public Program
The co-launch will be accompanied by a series of discussion forums with artists, curators and scholars:
Hong Kong, 7th September, 6.30 – 8.30pm, Hong Kong Arts Centre Speakers include: Chen Tong (Artist), Doryun Chong (Associate Curator of Painting & Sculpture at MoMA), Jane DeBevoise (Chair of Board of Directors of AAA), Wang Aihe (Associate Professor, School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong), Wu Hung (Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia, and Consulting Curator at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago) and Xu Tan (Artist)
Beijing, 9th September, 6.30 – 8.30pm, The Central Academy of Fine Arts Speakers include: Doryun Chong, Jane DeBevoise, Song Dong (Artist), Huang Rui (Artist), Wu Hung and Xu Bing (Artist)
Shanghai, 11th September, 4 – 6pm, Minsheng Art Museum Speakers include: Doryun Chong, Jane DeBevoise, Wu Shanzhuan (Artist), Shi Yong (Artist), Wu Hung and Yu Youhan (Artist)
New York, 15th October, 6:30pm, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Speakers include: Huang Rui (Artist), Jane DeBevoise, Lin Tianmiao (Artist), Sarah Suzuki (Assistant Curator of Prints & Illustrated Books at MoMA), and Wu Hung, among other leading artists and critics of Contemporary Chinese art. The event will be followed by a reception, where the book will be available for purchase.
Organizers of co-launch: ArtHub Asia in co-operation with Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai), Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong), The Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing), and The Museum of Modern Art (New York)
Organizers:
Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong) Asia Art Archive is a young and dynamic organisation initiated in 2000 as a direct response to the increasing number of Asian contemporary art exhibitions and events world wide. Based in Hong Kong, AAA, a non-profit organisation and registered charity, is dedicated to documenting the recent history of visual art from the region within an international context.
The first art education centre and library of its kind, AAA boasts one of the most comprehensive collections of primary and secondary source material on contemporary Asian art in the world, with over 26,000 titles accessible to the public, free of charge, via its physical space and searchable from its website. From its inception, AAA has acknowledged its position in the field as more than a static collection of material waiting to be discovered. Through the regular initiation of educational and public programs, AAA endeavours to be pro-active in instigating dialogue and critical thinking, and in introducing as wide an audience as possible to this rich resource.
11F Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Hong Kong. www.aaa.org.hk
MoMA (New York) Founded in 1929 as an educational institution, The Museum of Modern Art is dedicated to being the foremost museum of modern art in the world. Central to The Museum of Modern Art's mission is the encouragement of an ever-deeper understanding and enjoyment of modern and contemporary art by the diverse local, national, and international audiences that it serves. www.moma.org
MoMA's International Program, established in 1952, builds and maintains relationships between the
Museum and a diverse network of modern and contemporary art communities across the globe. Through a
series of international programs and publications, the department fosters learning, critical discourse, and
exchange on international models of museological, curatorial, and artistic best practices.
The Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing) The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) is a leading institution for modern art education in China, and has nurtured many pre-eminent artists in the past ninety years. In the 1980s, CAFA was the breeding ground for the first generation of contemporary art critics and curators who contributed to the development of New Wave art in the 1980s that culimated in the organization of the legendary 1989 China/Avant-garde exhibition. www.cafa.edu.cn/
ArtHub Asia in co-operation with Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai) Founded in 2007, ArtHub Asia (link to www.arthubasia.org) is a multi-disciplinary organization devoted to contemporary art creation in China and rest of Asia. In collaboration with museums and other public / private spaces and institutions, it initiates and delivers ambitious art projects through a sustained dialogue with visual, performance, and new media artists. Directors: Davide Quadrio, Defne Ayas, Qiu Zhijie. ArtHub Asia is a Network Partner of the Prince Claus Fund 2008-2010.
ArtHub Asia is working with Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai) to organize this event. Minsheng Art Museum is a non-profit arts organization established by the China Minsheng Bank in 2008.
Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990 is made possible by the generous support of The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation, The W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, Ilyas and Mara Khan, and Foundation for Arts Initiatives
Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents is made possible by lead sponsor The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. Generous support is provided by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art. Additional funding is provided by Budi Tek, Byron A. Meyer, E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, Blakemore Foundation, Guy and Myriam Ullens, LLWW Foundation, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal of He Xiangning Art Museum (OCAT), Anne H. Bass, Jo Carole Lauder, Larry Warsh and AW Asia, Robert Rosenkranz Foundation, Vicki and Roger Sant, Agnes Gund, Robert E. Meyerhoff, The Fran and Ray Stark Foundation, H.R.H. Duke Franz of Bavaria, Jack Shear, Thierry Barbier-Mueller, Mr. Marc Besen AO and Mrs. Eva Besen AO, Lyn and Jerry Grinstein in honor of Jay Levenson, Sophia Sheng, Eleanor Ford Sullivan, Migs Wright, Constance Caplan, Uli Sigg, and Lenore and Bernard Greenberg.
The co-launch events are made possible with the generous support of The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, Hong Kong Arts Centre and JIA Boutique Hotels.
For more information about Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990, please contact Phoebe Wong at phoebe@aaa.org.hk For Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents, please contact Hannah_Kim@moma.org
Asia Art Archive www.aaa.org.hk The Museum of Modern Art www.moma.org
Asia Art Archive (AAA) and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) celebrate the completion of two documentary projects that are essential to a deeper understanding of the history of contemporary Chinese art: AAA’s Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990 and MoMA’s publication of Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents. The two organizations will co- launch both projects in major cities in China and in New York in the fall of 2010 with a series of public programs. These milestone projects focus on the dramatic development and growth of Chinese contemporary art over the last three decades by documenting, collecting and translating critical discussions, primary materials and key texts.
Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990
The 1980s was a seminal period in China’s recent art history. During this time, many of China’s most celebrated artists attended art academies, held their first exhibitions, and developed the intellectual foundation for the art practices that have contributed to their present success. In order to foster research into this transformative moment in Chinese history, AAA has undertaken a four year focused archiving project; collecting, indexing and preserving rare documentary and primary source materials. As a result, AAA has collected hundreds of texts published during the 1980s, completed 75 video-taped interviews, produced a documentary film, and digitized the personal archives of renowned artists and curators, including Fei Dawei, Zhang Xiaogang, Zheng Shengtian, Lu Peng, Mao Xuhui and Wu Shanzhuan, to name a few. With a total of over 70,000 digital documents, AAA now maintains the world’s largest and most systematically organized archive of documentary material on the period. This scholarly resource will be freely accessible and open to the public from AAA’s physical premises as well as through a dedicated web portal www.china1980s.org starting September 2010.
Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents
Despite the liveliness and creativity of avant-garde Chinese art in the post-Mao era and its prominence in the world of international contemporary art, a systematic introduction to this important work in any Western language is still lacking. Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents remedies this situation by bringing together carefully selected primary texts in English translation. The documents included range from the manifestos of avant-garde groups, prefaces to important exhibitions, writings by representative artists, important critical, and analytical essays and others. Arranged in chronological order, the texts guide readers through the development of avant-garde Chinese art from 1976 until 2006. Edited by Wu Hung, Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia and Consulting Curator at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, with the assistance of Peggy Wang, Assistant Professor at Denison University, Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents is published by The Museum of Modern Art and will be available at MoMA Stores and online at www.MoMAStore.org in September 2010. It is distributed to the trade by Duke University Press, www.dukeupress.edu.
Schedule of Public Program
The co-launch will be accompanied by a series of discussion forums with artists, curators and scholars:
Hong Kong, 7th September, 6.30 – 8.30pm, Hong Kong Arts Centre Speakers include: Chen Tong (Artist), Doryun Chong (Associate Curator of Painting & Sculpture at MoMA), Jane DeBevoise (Chair of Board of Directors of AAA), Wang Aihe (Associate Professor, School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong), Wu Hung (Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia, and Consulting Curator at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago) and Xu Tan (Artist)
Beijing, 9th September, 6.30 – 8.30pm, The Central Academy of Fine Arts Speakers include: Doryun Chong, Jane DeBevoise, Song Dong (Artist), Huang Rui (Artist), Wu Hung and Xu Bing (Artist)
Shanghai, 11th September, 4 – 6pm, Minsheng Art Museum Speakers include: Doryun Chong, Jane DeBevoise, Wu Shanzhuan (Artist), Shi Yong (Artist), Wu Hung and Yu Youhan (Artist)
New York, 15th October, 6:30pm, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Speakers include: Huang Rui (Artist), Jane DeBevoise, Lin Tianmiao (Artist), Sarah Suzuki (Assistant Curator of Prints & Illustrated Books at MoMA), and Wu Hung, among other leading artists and critics of Contemporary Chinese art. The event will be followed by a reception, where the book will be available for purchase.
Organizers of co-launch: ArtHub Asia in co-operation with Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai), Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong), The Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing), and The Museum of Modern Art (New York)
Organizers:
Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong) Asia Art Archive is a young and dynamic organisation initiated in 2000 as a direct response to the increasing number of Asian contemporary art exhibitions and events world wide. Based in Hong Kong, AAA, a non-profit organisation and registered charity, is dedicated to documenting the recent history of visual art from the region within an international context.
The first art education centre and library of its kind, AAA boasts one of the most comprehensive collections of primary and secondary source material on contemporary Asian art in the world, with over 26,000 titles accessible to the public, free of charge, via its physical space and searchable from its website. From its inception, AAA has acknowledged its position in the field as more than a static collection of material waiting to be discovered. Through the regular initiation of educational and public programs, AAA endeavours to be pro-active in instigating dialogue and critical thinking, and in introducing as wide an audience as possible to this rich resource.
11F Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Hong Kong. www.aaa.org.hk
MoMA (New York) Founded in 1929 as an educational institution, The Museum of Modern Art is dedicated to being the foremost museum of modern art in the world. Central to The Museum of Modern Art's mission is the encouragement of an ever-deeper understanding and enjoyment of modern and contemporary art by the diverse local, national, and international audiences that it serves. www.moma.org
MoMA's International Program, established in 1952, builds and maintains relationships between the
Museum and a diverse network of modern and contemporary art communities across the globe. Through a
series of international programs and publications, the department fosters learning, critical discourse, and
exchange on international models of museological, curatorial, and artistic best practices.
The Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing) The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) is a leading institution for modern art education in China, and has nurtured many pre-eminent artists in the past ninety years. In the 1980s, CAFA was the breeding ground for the first generation of contemporary art critics and curators who contributed to the development of New Wave art in the 1980s that culimated in the organization of the legendary 1989 China/Avant-garde exhibition. www.cafa.edu.cn/
ArtHub Asia in co-operation with Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai) Founded in 2007, ArtHub Asia (link to www.arthubasia.org) is a multi-disciplinary organization devoted to contemporary art creation in China and rest of Asia. In collaboration with museums and other public / private spaces and institutions, it initiates and delivers ambitious art projects through a sustained dialogue with visual, performance, and new media artists. Directors: Davide Quadrio, Defne Ayas, Qiu Zhijie. ArtHub Asia is a Network Partner of the Prince Claus Fund 2008-2010.
ArtHub Asia is working with Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai) to organize this event. Minsheng Art Museum is a non-profit arts organization established by the China Minsheng Bank in 2008.
Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990 is made possible by the generous support of The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation, The W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, Ilyas and Mara Khan, and Foundation for Arts Initiatives
Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents is made possible by lead sponsor The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. Generous support is provided by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art. Additional funding is provided by Budi Tek, Byron A. Meyer, E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, Blakemore Foundation, Guy and Myriam Ullens, LLWW Foundation, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal of He Xiangning Art Museum (OCAT), Anne H. Bass, Jo Carole Lauder, Larry Warsh and AW Asia, Robert Rosenkranz Foundation, Vicki and Roger Sant, Agnes Gund, Robert E. Meyerhoff, The Fran and Ray Stark Foundation, H.R.H. Duke Franz of Bavaria, Jack Shear, Thierry Barbier-Mueller, Mr. Marc Besen AO and Mrs. Eva Besen AO, Lyn and Jerry Grinstein in honor of Jay Levenson, Sophia Sheng, Eleanor Ford Sullivan, Migs Wright, Constance Caplan, Uli Sigg, and Lenore and Bernard Greenberg.
The co-launch events are made possible with the generous support of The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, Hong Kong Arts Centre and JIA Boutique Hotels.
For more information about Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990, please contact Phoebe Wong at phoebe@aaa.org.hk For Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents, please contact Hannah_Kim@moma.org
