The Flourishing of Contemporary Art

The social atmosphere of the 1990s removed the concern for grand narratives, artists began to get tired of modernism, and the new generation of artists like Liu Xiaodong and “Cynical Realist” artists like Fang Lijun evoked the individualistic spiritual climate of the times. At the same time, some Pop art in Wuhan and Shanghai reminded the country of the reality of the continued development of the market economy, based on the combination of the market economy and the socialist system. Many artists’ works embodied obvious ideological or political symbolic characteristics, so critics dubbed the art “Political Pop”; this not insignificant movement later combined with “Cynical Realism” to produce “Gaudy Art.” Typical artists of this period include Wang Guangyi and Zhang Xiaogang.