Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents
Edited by Wu Hung

Unabridged and additional texts from the publication

Details of the related program that took place at MoMA on October 15 can be found here.

Chinese avant-garde art in the post-Mao era has come to play a prominent role in the world of international contemporary art. Yet in spite of the liveliness and creativity of contemporary Chinese art, there is no systematic art-historical introduction to this important topic in any Western language. Moreover, most of the relevant primary documents have existed only in Chinese, scattered in hard-to-find publications. Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents remedies this situation by bringing together carefully selected primary texts in English translation.

Arranged in chronological order, the texts guide readers through the development of avant-garde Chinese art from 1976 until 2006. Because experimental Chinese art emerged as a domestic phenomenon in the 1970s and 1980s and its subsequent development has been closely related to China's social and economical transformation, this volume focuses on art from mainland China. At the same time, it encompasses the activities of mainland artists residing overseas, since artists who emigrated in the 1980s and 1990s were often key participants in the early avant-garde movements and have continued to interact with the mainland art world.

The primary documents include the manifestos of avant-garde groups, prefaces to important exhibitions, writings by representative artists, important critical and analytical essays, and even some official documents. Each chapter and section begins with a concise preface explaining the significance of the texts and providing the necessary historical background; the volume includes a timeline summarizing important art phenomena and related political events.

Contemporary Chinese Art is part of an ongoing publication series from the International Program of The Museum of Modern Art, which makes crucial art-historical writings and primary documents from regions outside the United States available in English. Other volumes in the series include Alfredo Boulton and His Contemporaries: Critical Dialogues in Venezuelan Art, 1912–1974 (2008); Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts (2008); Listen, Here, Now! Argentine Art of the 1960s: Writings of the Avant-Garde (2004); and Primary Documents: A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s (2002).

Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents is published by The Museum of Modern Art and is available at MoMA Stores and online. It is distributed to the trade through Duke University Press.

Biographies of Editorial Team

Wu Hung is the Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor in Art History and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia, and Consulting Curator at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago. His many books include Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space, Transience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century, and (with Christopher Phillips) Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China. He has curated many international exhibitions of Chinese and international contemporary art.

Peggy Wang is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago and has accepted a position as assistant professor at Denison University.

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, The 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.