Search results for ""Author Pi Li""

Central to the stories of many of the world’s great art galleries are the acquisitions and bequests that shaped their collections. So it is with M+ – a new museum of visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong – and the M+ Sigg Collection. Acquired by the museum in 2012 from the Swiss businessman, diplomat and art collector Uli Sigg, the collection consists of 1,510 works of contemporary Chinese art, dating from the 1970s to the present and ranging across all media. Most significantly, perhaps, it offers a unique window on the remarkable flowering of experimental artistic practices in China during this time – a period of unprecedented social and economic change in the country that saw artists devise new, sometimes radical, approaches to artmaking, formulating new connections between art and society, and developing ground-breaking conceptual methodologies. Published to coincide with the presentation of the M+ Sigg Collection at the opening of the M+ building, Chinese Art Since 1970 features more than 600 works by more than 300 artists represented by the collection, among them Ai Weiwei, Cao Fei and Geng Jianyi. After introductory essays by Pi Li and Uli Sigg, an illustrated chronology spanning the years 1972 to 2020 highlights important social events, exhibitions and artistic movements to establish a context for the discussion of the featured artists and their work that follows. Punctuating this discussion are contributions from renowned art historians, curators and critics from across the globe on specific works and practices, together with in-depth explanations of key concepts and events, from Cynical Realism to the seminal exhibition China/Avant-Garde. Through the medium of the world’s pre-eminent collection of contemporary Chinese art, Chinese Art Since 1970 offers an unparalleled introduction to one of the most culturally dynamic periods in modern Chinese history. With over 700 illustrations

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The first book to explore the life and times of Chinese artist, businesswoman, socialite and style expert ‘Madame Song’, whose life was spent in the company of a Who’s Who of Cold War China and which paralleled the highs and lows of the country’s history. The extraordinary life story of Song Huai-Kuei, better known as Madame Song, follows the arc of 20th-century history. Artist, entrepreneur and impresario, Song broke cultural barriers for love, transcended Cold War borders for her art, and laid the foundations for a global fashion industry. With her cosmopolitan outlook, she defined an influential vision for Chinese culture on the world stage and asserted an Asian perspective in 21st-century art and design. Madame Song is a name that everyone interested in the roots of contemporary visual culture needs to know. At the heart of this volume is a critical biography that explores Song’s youth in revolutionary China, her cross-cultural marriage to Bulgarian fibre artist Maryn Varbanov, her success within avant-garde circles in Eastern and Western Europe during the Cold War, and finally her efforts within China to revive traditional aesthetics in tandem with the explosive rise of global couture. Throughout her life, she cultivated an aspirational image of what a modern Chinese woman could be within a changing and opening world. A consummate networker, Song built bridges between people, disciplines and business interests, often in the elegant surroundings of Maxim’s de Paris, Beijing, the restaurant she famously helped to open. In tracking the highs and lows of the massive social changes that occurred throughout her lifetime, Madame Song’s exceptional life serves as a fascinating lens through which to view 20th-century China.

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Considered the first Chinese artist to work in video, Zhang Peili (b. 1957) manipulates perspective, close-ups, and framing to create astonishing recordings of banal repeated actions, such as breaking glass, reading, washing, shaving, and blowing bubble gum. He is a pioneering figure, experimenting with a video camera in the late 1980s, exploring digital formats in the early 2000s, and developing large-scale, immersive scenes today. Despite Zhang’s pivotal role in the global history of video art, his oeuvre has received relatively little attention. This book, which includes insightful essays, color plates, and an illustrated chronology, is one of the few in-depth explorations in English of this important artist’s work. Distributed for the Art Institute of ChicagoExhibition Schedule:The Art Institute of Chicago (03/31/17–07/09/17)

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"Sculptuur Studies" is a publication from the Sculpture Institute, the research centre for modern and contemporary international sculpture affiliated to the Beelden aan Zee Museum, Scheveningen. In this edition the focus is on contemporary Chinese sculpture, art politics in Switzerland and the designer Benno Premsela. A portrait has been written of the latter to mark the fact that a bust of the designer was given to the Beeldon aan Zee Museum for its collection. An extensive account about Rembrandt, written by Piet Esser, is included in this second volume of "Sculptuur Studies" as a source publication, while Arie Hartog, curator of the Gerhard Marckshaus in Bremen, contributes an essay on the sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck. The regular columns include the following topics: international sculpture diary, obituaries for Geurt Brinkgreve, Theo Scholten, Rudi Oxenaar and Ellen Joosten, plus an extensive list of acquisitions and publications from the Beelden aan Zee Museum and Sculpture Institute. Sculpture lovers can indulge themselves in this comprehensive and informative periodical. The text is in English and Dutch.

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