Gao Minglu's 'Total Modernity' Analyzes Chinese Avant-Garde Through Western Semiotics

In his 2011 publication, 'Total Modernity and the Avant-Garde in Twentieth-Century Chinese Art,' released by MIT Press, Gao Minglu presents the idea of a unique Chinese modernity that stands apart from Western concepts. This 424-page work explores how the personal experiences of artists in self-imposed exile shape Chinese modernism. A Harvard PhD student of Norman Bryson, Gao employs semiotic theories to examine the interplay between Chinese art and Western modernism. Critics have pointed out the book's reliance on essentialist arguments and its lack of focus on commercial influences. Gao argues that Chinese maximalism serves as a counter to Western logocentricism. Priced at $39.95 (ISBN-10: 0262014947) and illustrated by the China Art Foundation, it appears during China's transition from communism to capitalism after the Cultural Revolution.