Total Modernity and the Avant-Garde in Twentieth-Century Chinese Art

Abstract

In this introduction, I will frst distinguish Chinese modernity from its Western referential origin, and argue that the fundamental characteristic of Chinese modernity can be interpreted as a permanent condition of contemporaneity, driven by a kind of empiricism, throughout modern Chinese history. In the second part, I will discuss how Chinese modernity has shaped the horizon of contemporary Chinese avant-garde art, locating it within a particular spatial perspective and experience. Troughout the discussion I will show that recognition of dislocation and displacement—in the sense of a merging of art and society by complex negotiations between various spaces—can be seen as an embodiment of the mixture of consciousness with imagination and cognition, as well as specifc and concrete experiences of the avantgarde artists. Tis notion of “space” is essential for an understanding of Chinese modernity and the avantgarde in contemporary art.