But back on Sept. 27, 1979, they were just a ragtag group of young artists — mostly in their 20s; Mr. Huang was 27 — trying to mount Communist China’s first independently organized contemporary art exhibit. Denied exhibition space inside a government-run museum in Beijing, they set up on the sidewalk outside, displaying oil paintings and sculptures the likes of which most Chinese had never seen on public display… Word spread quickly, and within hours throngs of people arrived, some to spit and shout abuse at the artists, but others to leave letters of admiration. On the second day the show was declared illegal and shut down by the police. But in a bold move, the artists and their supporters marched down Changan Avenue in protest on Oct. 1, the 30th anniversary of the People’s Republic, demanding democracy and greater artistic freedom. The authorities yielded on the art show, allowing the group to hold a 10-day indoor exhibition the next month in Beijing’s Beihai Park.

…In a recent performance in Beijing’s 798 art district, Mr. Huang — standing on stilts and wearing a long white robe on which were printed terms that included “Obama,” “H1N1″ and “Gulf War” — wrote the names of key people and ideas in China’s art world on dishes, smashing them with a small hammer as he went.

“When we were the Stars, we were independent,” he says. “I’m still trying to keep my faith. Though China appears to have opened up, there are too many compromises in today’s world. In the Stars’ time, we were dissident voices.” Embracing the official line, which Mr. Huang sees as a theme through China’s succession of dynasties, continues today, he says, and not just in what’s generally considered the art world.

See also past CDT posts on Huang Rui.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chinese art, Huang Rui, Stars
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Huang Rui, an artist and one of the organizers of the festival, says certain themes are off limits.

“Some officials don’t like artworks with themes of leaders since Mao, or thoughts of the leaders, or the Tiananmen Incident,” Huang says. “These, for them, are very sensitive. In fact, these factors are like a spring. If there is any restriction, it is actually an incentive for artists to create.”

Karen Smith is a writer and modern art critic based in Beijing. She says there is more to Chinese modern art than those who push political boundaries.

“You see a lot of artists who just want attention, who use the very obvious routes, and of course that’s the easiest thing for the government to respond to,” she says. “But, if you want to find real quality, real powerful art there’s some great statements being made. And those artists, really I don’t think they’re being constrained in any way from saying what they want to say.”

© Sophia Cao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: art censorship, contemporary art, dashanzi, Huang Rui
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Several galleries in this city’s thriving arts district were recently ordered by government officials to remove more than 20 paintings, apparently because they dealt with political themes, artists and gallery directors here said.

The works, some of which featured radical portrayals of Mao and references to the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989, were taken down just before one of the city’s biggest art festivals, which opened on April 30.

“A group of men came and ordered the workers to take it down,” said Huang Rui, an artist and arts organizer here who had one of his works removed. “We had to do it. The workers in the gallery were scared.”

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: contemporary art, cultural censorship, Huang Rui
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall