“The Revival of Tradition” Contemporary Chinese Art was part of the events at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009 where China was the guest of honor, since then it has been successfully held in Frankfurt, London, Beijing, Turkey. China is the guest of honor atthe BOOK EXPO AMERICA 2015 which is held at Javits Center in New York, “The Revival of Tradition – Another Approach to Contemporary Chinese Art” grandly debuted as a major part of the events and as the guest of honor.

The theme of “The Revival of Tradition” originated from our thinking of the development context and status quo of Chinese contemporary art: in recent years, with the consensus of many contemporary Chinese artists have had a new understanding and assessment of Chinese traditional culture and art and with the use of initiative link tradition, looking for inspiration and resources from the tradition. Contemporary artists collectively retrospect tradition, actually implying the reflection of the modernization process in Chinese art.

The exhibition is the 5th round of “The Revival of Tradition”, assembling the creative practices by 17 contemporary Chinese artists including Li Jin, Li Xiangquan, Pan Lusheng, Xu Lei, Feng Yan, Wu Yi, Zhao Meng, Jiang Ji’an, Shi Jinsong, Zhang Jian, Liu Wentao, Gao Qian, Peng Wei, Xu Hualing, Feng Haitao, Lu Hao, Wu Didi, all who attempt to use a special way in visual art to explain the concept of “the revival of tradition” from different perspectives. The work covers oil painting, Chinese ink painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, installation and so on. The participating artists have a common characteristic in that they use a mature contemporary form to offer a cultural trait of today froman international perspective – their creation fully embodies and conveys the complexity, trying to break the binary oppositions between the “Orient” and “West”, “traditional” and “contemporary”, so that tradition has a contemporary relevance, while the contemporary has historical dimensions, with the individual unique and specific creative practice they find a meeting point in traditional and contemporary, and have a in-depth discovery and extension.

At the same time, during the exhibition which was in cooperation with Columbia University, a symposium was held of “The Revival of Tradition?– Another Approach to Contemporary Chinese Art”, Yin Jinan, Dean of the School of Literature Arts, CAFA, served as the academic director, in addition, many well-known scholars attended the symposium, including John Rajchman, Adjunct Professor and Director of Modern Art M.A. Programs in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, Jerome Silbergeld, Professor of Chinese art in the Art and Archaeology Department at Princeton University, Eugene Wang, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University, and Gary G. Xu, Head of the Department of East Asian Languages and Culture, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

About the exhibition

Dates: May 27 – May 31, 2015

Opening: May 27, 2015

Address: Chinese Cultural Pavilion-Crystal Palace, Javits Center, 655 West 34th Street, New York

Producer: Joyce Xu

Curator: Tang Zehui

Artists: Li Jin, Li Xiangquan, Pan Lusheng, Xu Lei, Feng Yan, Wu Yi, Zhao Meng, Jiang Ji’an, Shi Jinsong, Zhang Jian, GaoQian, Liu Wentao, Peng Wei, XuHualing, FengHaitao, Lu Hao, Wu Didi

Presented by State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People’s Republic of China

Organized by MEBO Culture

Additional Support Provided by China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Corporation/ Department of East Asian Landscapes and Cultures, Columbia University/ Beijing Caissa Culture Communication Co., Ltd/ Shandong Taishan Culture Art Exchange Co., Ltd/ Green Bridge International, Inc./ New York Culture Art Media Center