WANG FEI (China), Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute

The profound transformations that have taken place in China since the early 1990s have affected all spheres of life in the Middle Kingdom and changed Chinese society. The planned economy transformed into a market economy and gradually merged into the global world economic system, which could not but affect the way of life, views and thinking of the Chinese. A new cultural climate has emerged in the country. Modern art of a new generation emerged and developed against the background of these historical changes, entering a phase of pluralism. This is an article by a young Chinese art critic.

Who are they, the creators of the new art of China? They welcome changes in Chinese society and express their views freely. They have the right to choose. In an atmosphere of reform and openness, they are beginning to practice the canons of Western contemporary art, which was largely facilitated by the exhibitions of Western classical and modern painting held in major cities of the country since the 1980s. The unconventional genre of oil painting in China is being enthusiastically mastered by a new generation of artists. They choose pop art as their main form of self-expression.

They did not survive the emotional sufferings of the older generation of artists associated with the vicissitudes of the "cultural revolution". There is a certain moral gap between the two generations of artists. "The young people have a weak team spirit and lack common ideological and artistic aspirations. The" new generation "is based on age, and the artistic images can be called" close distance " - this is how the Chinese critic Yin Jinan characterizes the new generation of artists.¹

But even the "young" ones will have to experience events that will change their lives in many ways, give a new direction to their creativity, charging it with special energy.

1989 - the year of the political crisis. The events in Tiananmen Square marked a turning point for many artists of the new generation. After the violent suppression of student demonstrations, some artists went abroad, and many of the remaining artists were not allowed to exhibit in China for a long time. The situation in the country and the world had a huge impact on creative youth. As a result of understanding the Tiananmen events, a detached and sarcastic reinterpretation of the communist past and the socialist present, two trends of actual Chinese painting emerged, which later became known as the "Modern Chinese art".-

* Pop art (English pop art, short for popular art) - popular, public art replaces abstractionism, focusing on the new imagery created by the media.

popular in the West - "political realism" (Political Art) and "Cynical Realism" (Cynical Realism)². Artists of these trends, perhaps, can already be called representatives of the second wave of avant-garde art in China.

The creation of a new generation in contemporary Chinese art is marked by the exhibitions "Creativity of Liu Xiaodong" and "World of Artists", held in Beijing in 1990. After some time, the Central Academy of Arts organizes exhibitions of artists Wang Huaxiang, Yu Hong, Su Xinping, Shen Liin, Li Tianyuan. And in July 1991, a very representative exhibition "Modern Art of the new Generation" was held at the Beijing History Museum. According to the art commission, it "reflected a very important stage in the development of art... because it united the state of mind of an entire epoch. " ³

Artists of the 80s-90s are sensitive to the true feeling of real life. They are not interested in theory and concept, philosophy and ideology. Using the technique of academic realism, they depict in detail a "random frame" of reality or an "idle state of mind".

The most significant in this respect is the work of the artist Liu Xiaodong, who is certainly the brightest representative of the new generation of artists of the first wave. His painting "Pastoral", written in 1989, became a landmark work of the "modern" style of the 1990s. He paints realistic pictures of the everyday life of his contemporaries, which reflect his original view of social phenomena and mores. Fang Dian, a well-known Chinese art critic, writes of him: "His paintings are always a smile away from real society." ⁴ Naturalness and special sensitivity attract and his paintings, written after 1995, among which - "Violation of the rules". He still pays great attention to the technique of painting, although in modern art the role of conceptualism is increasing. Chinese art of this period is the art of a liberated person who openly expresses his attitude to certain phenomena in society, it is very realistic, its themes are diverse. It is officially considered that Chinese pop art appeared, or rather became a noticeable phenomenon, in 1992. Artists Wang Guani, Wei Guangqing, Li Banyao, Yang Guoxin, Ren Do, Fang Shaohua and others from Hubei province can be called the second generation in modern Chinese art. Leaving traditional styles behind, they stated: "We want to use light techniques and visual effects that people know well; and to make art a part of life... And although they have different search directions, they all tried to change themselves, to find the language of generally understood folk art. Hubei artists were the forerunners of the pop art style"⁵. In 1993, critics Zhu Bin and Lu Hong described the art of Hubei artists as a cultural phenomenon.

Chinese pop art appeared and developed under the influence of Western pop art, which emerged as a completely new art, but unlike the Western one, it reflected the socio-political and cultural realities of China, becoming the quintessence of traditional Chinese and Western art and occupying a fairly prominent place in the artistic structure of the country and the world.

It is impossible not to draw an analogy between Chinese pop art and social art, which emerged in the unofficial art of the USSR as a reaction and parody of the dominant official style of "socialist realism". Many social art artists left for the United States without finding understanding in their homeland. "There they sensed the similarities in the aesthetic that existed between the ideology of socialism and the commercial language of the West. Moreover, at that time there was still no system of capitalism in the USSR. " ⁶

Chinese "political art", as well as social art, is based on auto-caricature and self-parody, but has a pronounced national specificity, " because in the social structure of the PRC, both the ideology of socialism and the system of commercial capitalism coexist, which is unique for the XX century. Nevertheless, artists of social art and Chinese "political art" were commercially successful. " ⁷ There is an opinion, perhaps explaining this phenomenon, that the acute socialization of art in countries where there are many unresolved issues, dilemmas and problems makes it more interesting and richer. In socially prosperous countries, any art looks refined.

However, the social background of Chinese "political art" and social art was different. In the early 1990s, the fashion for Mao Zedong began in China-portraits of Mao, badges depicting Mao, quotes from Mao, etc. - which was reflected in the paintings of Chinese artists. This social phenomenon was also affected by the difficult state of mind of the people, and nostalgic moods, and the desire to pour out their soul. At that time, it was a popular product of the mass consumer culture of Chinese society. Through their art, the artists reflected the problems of modern China and

your attitude to them. "Chinese' political art 'has a specific social background and idea." ⁸

The main feature of China's " political art "is the synthesis of American pop art, a prominent representative of which is Andy Warhol, with elements of the Chinese" cultural revolution", for example, a combination of images of the leader and critics of the"cultural revolution". Artists representing this trend include Wang Guani, Yu Yuhan, Li Shan, Liu Dahong, Wang Zi-wei, Feng Mengbo, and others.

Wang Guani is perhaps the most famous artist of Chinese "political realism". In the 1980s, he experimented a lot and found his own artistic language. In the early 1990s, he began writing the series "Big Critics". He depicted images of workers, peasants and soldiers of the "cultural Revolution" against the background of Western brands - "Marlboro", "Kodak", "Coca Cola", etc. This makes the viewer feel absurd. The series "Big Criticism" reflects the obvious features of the PRC's policy, this is a typical "Chinese phenomenon".

During this period, Yu Yuhan painted a nostalgic image of the leader against the background of traditional folk calico.

Zhang Xiaogang, reviewing old family photos at his parents 'house, was inspired to create the famous "Big Family" series. Old photographs, according to Zhang Xiaogang, contain special aesthetic aspirations of the Chinese people. It draws identical faces, and even an average model has appeared. The totalitarian regime and communist ideology in China depersonalized people - this is the artist's idea.

Artists of the new generation reflect their own lives and the lives of people around them not only through painting, but also through artistic photography. The genre of photorealism is already quite widely represented in contemporary art in China.

Since the 45th Venice Biennale, held in 1993, works of Chinese contemporary art have been featured in large-scale international exhibitions. Contemporary artists in China have entered the international arena and attracted attention. The Chinese avant-garde was accepted by the international community. Two new artistic trends - " political art "and" cynical realism " - are becoming particularly popular in the West.

Artist Liu Xiaodong participated in international exhibitions and achieved fame and financial success, he remained true to his creative position. As the Chinese critic Yi Ying noted, his art "embodies the compromise of modernity and academism, and it coincides with the very minimum of modernity that can be accepted by the market." ⁹

Unfortunately, many artists, participating in international exhibitions and auctions and having studied the tastes of "connoisseurs" of art in the West, in an effort to sell themselves more expensively, began to replicate the most commercially successful works or indulge the less demanding tastes of Western consumers, which became one of the main reasons for the loss of the original value of Chinese "political art"."and it has led, in our opinion, to a situation that today indicates a crisis in this avant-garde direction.

Contemporary Chinese art, regardless of its artistic value, can be considered the most important evidence of key changes in the recent history of China.

¹ In July 1991, the exhibition "Contemporary Art"was held in Beijing. Critics soon developed new definitions for this exhibition and its participants: Li Xiantin called their art "cynical realism," Yin Jinan called it "close - range art," and Gao Minglu called it "concrete realism."

² Works of "cynical realism" express contradictions in social transformations, confusion and depression of people. Artists representing this direction are Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Yang Shangbin, etc. I knock on the door alone. Beijing. Triathlete. 1993.

^{Lu Peng.} 3 History of art of the XX century. - Beijing. Peking University Press. 2007. pp. 821-822.

^{Shu Kaewen.} 4 Believe in art or artists. - Beijing. Chinese People's University Press. 2003. p. 38. See also: Fan Dian. Concrete Realism-Liu Xiaodong, his times and our times // Century online.

^{Zhu Bin, Lu Hong.} 5 Hubei Pop Art // The trend of art. 1993. N 3.

^{Gao Minglu.} 6 Politicheskoe iskusstvo: kitsch (Kitsch), vlast ' i sostupstvie [Political Art: kitsch, power and complicity]. - Nanjing. Art Publishing House "Jiangsu". 1997. p. 198.

⁷ Ibid.

^{Liu Chun.} 8 History of oil painting in China. Beijing: Chinese Youth Publishing House. 2005. p. 337.

^{Yi Ying.} 9 Liu Xiaodong is a contemporary art artist. - Wuhan. Hubei Art Publishing House. 2000.

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