UCCA Public Program: Zhang Xiaogang x Jonathan Fineberg x Xiang Jing / Writing in Contemporary Art

2017-12

On the afternoon of December 20, 2017, artist Zhang Xiaogang, artist Xiang Jing and art historian Jonathan Fineberg hold a lively discussion on the topic of "Writing on Contemporary Art".

The co-existence of contemporary art and art theory is a prominent feature. As one looks at the 30-year history of Chinese contemporary art, the reality of Chinese contemporary art and the Western art theory has undergone very evident changes too. As critics in China continuously seek all kinds of Western theories to interpret Chinese contemporary art, one can also observe a growing interest in Chinese contemporary art from the West. But one prevalent situation presented is that art professionals in the West cannot quite interpret the reality of Chinese contemporary art from their status-quo knowledge system. They avidly seek a path to understand Chines contemporary art. Understanding contemporary art, to a great extent, depends on interpretative methods and writings by art writers. So what kind of art writing do we actually need in the context of Chinese contemporary art?

Jonathan Fineberg

University Professor and Director of the Ph.D. at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Jonathan Fineberg earned his B.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, and his M.A. from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London,  He has curated more than a dozen museum exhibitions, and previously taught at Yale and at the University of Illinois. 
His selected books include: Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being (Pearson, forthcoming from Hunan Fine Arts Press); Christo and Jeanne-Claude: On the Way to the Gates (Yale & Metropolitan Museum of Art); Zhang Xiaogang: Disquieting Memories (Phaidon), etc. He is currently working on a three-volume survey of art in The Twentieth Century.