Guggenheim's 'Art and China After 1989' Exhibition Charts China's Global Rise Through Contemporary Art

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York presented 'Art and China After 1989: Theater of the World' from October 6 to January 7, a major survey examining Chinese contemporary art's evolution amid the nation's ascent to global power. Curated into six chronological and thematic sections, the exhibition featured 71 artists, including Qiu Zhijie, whose 2017 map visualizes the period's artistic currents. Works spanned from the 1989 avant-garde and political conceptualism of the 1980s-90s to responses to capitalism, globalization, and identity crises. Notable pieces included Wu Shanzhuan's 'Today No Water' (1986–96), Ai Weiwei and Xu Bing's collaborative hoax 'Wu Street' (1993), and Huang Yong Ping's 'Theater of the World' (1993). The show also addressed post-2008 developments, such as the Long March Project and Bishan Commune's leftist models, while touching on controversies like the Guggenheim's removal of three works following animal-rights protests. Co-curator Philip Tinari contributed to the catalogue, framing the exhibition's aim to move beyond East-West dualisms. The review, from ArtReview Asia's Winter 2017 issue, critiques Western narratives of Chinese art while highlighting the exhibition's sensitivity to individual artists' ambiguities amidst collective historical shifts.