The Chinese art boom of the 2000s will be remembered as one of the most influential periods in modern art history. Chinese art dates back to the sixth century during the period of the Northern and Southern dynasties. During the Sui and Tang dynasties (500-1000 A.D), China was reunifying, creating a period of prosperity and a flourishing art and literature market. Art during this time reflected many different cultural backgrounds around China. These art pieces included paintings, calligraphies, Buddhist sculptures, metalwork and ceramics. After this period came the Song dynasty. The Song dynasty was an era that shaped Chinese culture. During this time, art was mainly focused on textiles that were produced for trade, and ceramics. The next major era included the Ming and Qing dynasties. Art was flourishing, and porcelains were being produced as exports to ship around the world. With the fall of the Qing dynasty, introduced the twentieth century and the Communist era. In the beginning of the century, artists were involved with reform movements to promote nationalism and modernism. Major artists went abroad for training, those who stayed created private art societies. Most of the art practiced included “fine art” paintings. However, previous art practices like calligraphy and ceramics were no longer taught in art schools. In the 1940s, the Communist party inflicted standards on art production, hindering artists’ ability to create what they wanted. Then finally in the 1980s, a new generation of artists emerged, embracing Western art. These artists tested boundaries, challenged the communist party, and painted about taboo subjects. This is time that the Chinese contemporary art market started to make a name for itself.
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...tly, the Chinese and Hong Kong art markets are booming, however, many art historians and art investors are predicting that the Chinese art bubble will soon burst. For now, there is a steady incline in art sales at auction houses in mainland China and Hong Kong.
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Interregnum, painted by the Chinese artist Hung Liu, is a massive oil painting created circa 2002. With the intentional application of several principles and elements of art in her work, Liu effectively depicts her late Asian culture’s traditional aspects while also exposing the harsh reality of China’s Communist society. Hung Liu incorporates a variety of styles into Interregnum while also utilizing color and line to visually communicate the subject matter to the viewer. In a formal interpretation of this work, the overarching theme of Interregnum will be explored and described, focusing on the particular values sought out by the artist Hung Liu.
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I learned about many significant artwork and artist in this class. This class provided me with a better understanding of the history of the world Art, but also helped me understand the development of art style. However, among all of these precious pieces of artwork, there are two special ones that caught my attention: The Chinese Qin Terracotta Warriors and The Haniwa. Each of them represents the artist’s stylistic characteristics and cultural context. Although they represented different art of rulers, historical values, and scenes, there were visible similarities.
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Through art, people can expose their ideas, their opposition to the government rules and regulations in a quiet way. The artists try to expose their revolutionary ideas and motivate the people to fight against the cruel actions of the government. The concept of Chinese government about art is that it must always serve the people and the government is always ready to promote art by giving systematic education about the new art. They always give preferences to the revolutionary art and the nonrevolutionary arts were banned at that time. There are different levels of artistic concepts in China which include the modern art, religious art, commercial art etc.
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Before the Cynical Realism movement began, the revolution came to be a disastrous plan that was put in place in order to revitalize the revolutionary spirit of China’s leaders with the assembly of youths that were ordered to rid of the “old” culture and those that did not support the new revolution. The entire uprising led to a total economic decline and failing educational systems, as well as the loss of faith that many Chinese citizens had for their government. After the death of Mao Zedong, the people of China, especially the artists, were beginning to see how far behind China was compared to the rest of the world due to Mao’s desire for a “self-sufficient” China (Smith 16). The art institutions were previously forced to emphasize strictly social realism and the study of representational work. Realizing ...
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