Revolutionary Art In The Spotlight
The rise of contemporary art in this country has turned the art world’s head for a decade, while its predecessor, the dominant artistic style of 20th century China, has remained virtually forgotten.
There was room for little else but social realistic revolutionary art in China for much of the 20th century, with the Chinese Communist Party’s coming to power in 1949, accompanied by paintings of ecstatic peasants, children of the revolution, hopeful of a better life. Then there were the ubiquitous portraits of Mao Zedong, a specialty of one of China’s most famous modern artists, Chen Yifei, whose work is on display this month at the West Bund’s new Long Museum.
“It can be said that his passion was for art, that he was dedicated to the art of persistence and threw himself into an attitude of the time,” Long Museum Executive Director, Huang Jian, told Talk.
As one of the few revolutionary artists who adapted to life after China’s opening up and became almost as famous for his contemporary art, it is exactly artists such as Chen who open the door for collectors and admirers of Chinese contemporary art to look back at the era that inspired much of it.
Yang Peiming has done more to keep the flame of revolutionary art alive than almost anyone else. As founder and curator of Shanghai’s Propaganda Poster Art Centre, he has collected more than five thousand, increasingly rare, examples of populist art from the dawn of communism, through to the end of the Cultural Revolution.
He believes the growth of contemporary art is now leading people back to revolutionary art. Although there is still only a tiny auction market for the latter, he sees more collectors, particularly Chinese collectors, taking an interest.
“Because contemporary art is such a good market, the value is going up so fast so people try to enlarge the scope by saying, ‘What came before the contemporary art?’” he said.
“We can say that contemporary art is often inspired by revolutionary art, in content, in the way contemporary art strives to break away from the social realism style, revolutionary art definitely has an influence. There are many connections between the two.”
Both Yang and Huang, whose Long Museum also has a permanent collection of revolutionary art from the Yan’an period to 1980, believe the style has value, not only in an artistic sense, but more broadly as well.
“We cherish these works because of the special feelings experienced throughout such an age. But from our point of view at the museum, consideration is placed on artistic value and the value of the literature, as well as the historical importance,” Huang said.
Yang Peiming, while acknowledging the suffering of many artistic freedoms throughout China’s 20th century, maintains that the importance of revolutionary art lies in its reflection of the Chinese spirit.
“China suffered so much in the couple of hundred years after the Industrial Revolution. So when Mao Zedong made a new government and stabilised the country, it lifted the spirits of artists and intellectuals,” he said.“
At the beginning, it definitely wasn’t just the government or organisations ordering art to be made like this. It was coming from the renewed spirit of the people being reflected by artists.”
But the potential for revolutionary art to gain more of a foothold is hindered by several factors, not least of which is a lack of materials, with many being destroyed throughout the more chaotic periods of the 20th century.
There is also the infiltration of fakes to consider, with Yang claiming that many illegitimate revolutionary works are offered at auction, and too few experts who are well informed enough about the sector to spot them.
“I think [fakes on the auction market] is a big problem. I have friends and colleagues who have bought revolutionary art and I know it’s fake, so I tell them and they are obviously disappointed and don’t want to buy anymore,” Yang explained.
“I still encourage people to buy. But it’s the same with all art you are buying in China, you have to be careful about if you are buying fakes.”
Propaganda Poster Art Centre, B/F, Bldg B, 868 Huashan Lu, near Fuxing Lu. Tel: 6211 1845. Web: www.shanghaipropagandaart.com; Long Museum, 3398 Longteng Avenue, near Fenglin Lu or No. 210, 2255 Luoshan Lu, near Huamu Lu. Web: www.thelongmuseum.org
