1 OLD GHOSTS NEW SPIRITS 18
This section looks at the controversial and provocative figures of the Chinese art scene from the 1980s to the early 1990s. Regarded as the first decade of contemporary Chinese art, the 1980s, a decade of general opening and relative liberalism was a period of exceptional creative fervour and artistic experimentation. An unprecedented access to a range of newly translated and published Western literature, philosophy and art, as well as to re-editions of traditional Chinese books allowed the artists to develop new languages and concepts. Using their new stylistic and conceptual tools the artists dealt with their “old ghosts�, like for example recent history, in particular the Cultural Revolution, or with socialist realism and what they called the excess of meaning, the semantic redundancy of their culture. They developed their individual utopias alongside the official utopia of the modernization of Chinese society and culture. The resulting proliferation of artistic activity makes it difficult to generalise this period, particularly since it was a nation-wide, decentralised movement with groups of artists coming together to exhibit works in areas as diverse as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hunan, Hebei, Hangzhou or again Xiamen. Yet, the artistic endeavours of this decade share a common ambition – to break away from traditional norms and to develop a new culture: Old ghosts making their way for New Spirits.