China Pluperfect: Volume 2?Practices of Past and Outside in Chinese Art

This book contains analysis of different domains of contemporary art in China seen through the lens of the epistemological changes described in the first volume. It first looks at the concept of “ink art,” describes how it meant different things to different people in the former colony and how these different meanings came to determine certain institutional choices made at the beginning of the 21st century. The following chapters are dedicated to issues related to the urban and rural contexts for art creation in Mainland China and Hong Kong, the changing fortunes of art making in the countryside, observing how institutions in the Mainland and in Hong Kong have supported these practices very differently. Frank Vigneron finally considers how the different speeds of globalization, slow in the past and fast today, have determined some of the issues of past and outside in the present and particularly in the context of socially engaged art.

Frank Vigneron is Chair and Professor at the Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on the history of Chinese painting from the 18th century onwards as well as on different aspects of contemporary Chinese art as seen in a global context.