China Contemporary: Architecture, Art, Visual Culture
China Contemporary: Architecture, Art, Visual Culture catalogs the exhibition China Contemporary, which occurred concurrently at three museums in the Netherlands in 2006: Nederlands Architectuurinstituut, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, and Nederlands fotomuseum.
A number of waves of Chinese art have gotten attention in recent years in the West - some playing ironically with propoganda imagery, then later, some working with installation and performance art. This exhibit seems to have focused on what one of the commentators calls the “third and fourth waves” of contemporary Chinese art, and thus is more recent than some of the artwork that has been shown in the Western press.
A lot of the images in this book are really interesting. The essays are also quite good - one in particular, entitled Freedom and Inequality, by Garrie van Pinxteren, stands out. This essay seems (to me, at least) to have more depth and accuracy in its understanding of contemporary Chinese culture than one usually sees in the Western press.
This is a very nice book. It’s beautiful, fascinating, and very informative.