Includes bibliographical references. Issued in connection with an exhibition held July 10-Oct. 5, 2008, organized by Jeff Kelley for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Contents:
The half-life of a dream / Jeff Kelley -- Plates -- The potency of the mask : ancient rites in contemporary Chinese art / Christoph Heinrich -- Life after history / Eleanor Heartney -- Plates -- Contemporary Chinese art : the challenge of transition / Kent Logan.
Summary:
Half-Life of a Dream: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Logan Collection" is a survey of post-Tiananmen Square Chinese art and culture. As this work reveals, contemporary Chinese art - often discussed as a cynical reaction to emerging consumerism or as a satiric response to the academic patriotism of socialist realism - is more haunted than cynical, more a matter of a nation's suppressed psychic expression than of pop iconoclasm or ironic detachment. The paintings, sculptures, and installations of such Chinese artists as Ai Weiwei, Liu Xiaodong, Zhang Xiaogang, and Lin Tianmiao convey the shadows that trouble their nation as it undergoes a rapid process of modernization. "Half-Life of a Dream" gathers a distinguished group of art historians and critics to assess the Logan Collection and to capture this important moment in Chinese art.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.