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

An unprecedented avant-garde art movement has emerged in China since the 1980s. Gao Minglu is the key figure who has promoted the movement. This comprehensive, detailed and incisive book is a just testimony of this history.

Wang Min'an, Cultural Theorist and Professor, Foreign Literature Institute, Beijing Foreign Studies University

Gao Minglu writes a thoughtful history of twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century Chinese art, especially the avant-garde art that has developed since the end of the cultural revolution. Gao is particularly good at explaining the background of advanced art practice in China during the last three decades. As he shows, contemporary Chinese art has responded to the tumultuous events of recent Chinese political and economic history in unique ways. This book is sure to become an important source for scholars and anyone interested in recent developments in China.

Craig Adcock, School of Art and Art History, University of Iowa

When it first emerged in the late 1970s, there were few who took Chinese avant-garde art seriously, yet today it is in full swing on the international stage, shaping the configuration of art in our time. With this volume Gao Minglu, the foremost theoretician of the movement, also becomes its number one historian, providing the first in-depth history of this phenomenon. Total Modernity not only signals the attainment by this movement of historical status and stature, it is a major art historical landmark in its own right.

Jerome Silbergeld, P. Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Professor of Chinese Art History and Director, Tang Center for East Asian Art, Princeton University

Written by one of the most important advocates and theorists of contemporary Chinese art, Total Modernity and the Avant-Garde in Twentieth-Century Chinese Art traces the historical roots of contemporary Chinese art and interprets some of the most important events that shaped it over the past three decades. Making serious theoretical claims based on firsthand observations, this book sheds light not only on the unique characteristics of recent Chinese art but also on the growing complexity of contemporary art in general.

Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and Director, Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago