The ’85 Art Movement

As a result of the reform and opening up and the emancipation of the mind that began in 1978, a large number of artists with lively and keen ideas were produced. Starting with the Progressive Chinese Youth Art Exhibition, people saw new artistic phenomena. The critic Li Xiaoshan’s view that Chinese painting had already reached “the end of its days” sparked a wide-ranging discussion. Under the influence of Western philosophical thought, the ’85 Art Movement was launched throughout the country, and art groups from all over China appeared, and Chinese artists once again began to learn Western modernism in an all-round way. Mao Xuhui, Zhang Peili, Huang Yongping, Gu Wenda, and Wu Shanzhuan became important artists during this period. However, the rapidly changing social reality confronted artists with confusion, as demonstrated by the problems that arose in the 1989 “China/Avant-Garde: China Modern Art Exhibition,” which revealed the crisis of modernism. The development of the commodity economy also began to have a decisive impact on the way artists lived and worked, and the Yuanmingyuan Art Village hinted at the fate of the contemporary art ecology in the future.