Materials of the future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art From 1980-1990

Li Xiaoshan 2009-03-05
Nanjing Square Gallery of Contemporary Art, Nanjing

Conducted in Mandarin

“When I was in college, our teacher said: ‘Go and copy the ancient paintings, build a solid foundation and accumulate your skills. Then go out and create.’ These were the rules that we inherited. It was the same when I got to graduate school. My advisor said: ‘Go and copy the ancient paintings. All you have to do is study the ancients. Only after you learn all of these traditional techniques, can you do this or that.’ I reacted strongly against this… all throughout college and graduate school. I practised guohua (Chinese ink painting), but I thought ‘If guohua continues like this, it will die out’.”

Biography:

Li Xiaoshan (b. 1957) is an art critic and Director of the Nanjing Square Gallery of Contemporary Art.

Between 1980 and 1987, Li studied as an undergraduate and postgraduate at the Nanjing Arts Institute. He has taught at the school since his graduation and is now its Deputy Director of Contemporary Art Research.

In July 1985, Li published the controversial article titled 'My View on Contemporary Chinese Painting' in the Jiangsu Pictorial (Jiangsu huakan) about the state of Chinese ink painting at that time. The article aroused much debate and became one of the most important critical essays of the 1980s. Li’s other published works include History of Painting in China (Zhongguo xiandai huihua shi) (1986), What Are We Facing? (Women miandui shenme) (2002), and The Epic of the Trojan Horse (Muma shishi) (2003), to name a few.

Li Xiaoshan 2009-03-05 Nanjing Square Gallery of Contemporary Art, Nanjing

Li Xiaoshan 2009-03-05
Nanjing Square Gallery of Contemporary Art, Nanjing