A Taste of Time Travel at the National Art Museum

It’s neither the most spectacular art show in Beijing nor the most provocative. It isn’t using a ton of publicity or gimmickry to draw viewers. It’s not the most expensive, or most historic, or most anything, really. What it does demonstrate though, are two things often lacking in the art scene here: restraint and sharp discernment.

After 15 years’ careful hand-picking of the best representations of China’s contemporary art, the Taikang Life Art Collection opened its first big show at the National Art Museum of China last Saturday, to a sizeable and pensive audience. Many in attendance appeared to be the artists themselves, those involved with the Taikang collection (like CEO and mastermind of the collection, Chen Dongsheng – for more about him and the history of his company, see our September feature, p49), and their friends and families, though the event was surprisingly low on snobbery. This makes this an excellent exhibit for those enamored with contemporary art, as well as any of you who’ve ever wondered “What’s all the fuss about China’s contemporary art anyway?”

When you get up to the main exhibition hall on the third floor of the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) – which I should remind you all, is now free for all visitors – the first thing you’ll probably notice is a phone booth installation to your left. Twenty-two years ago, also at NAMOC, the curtains rose on China’s contemporary art movement as two bullets passed through this exact same installation. It was the China/Avant Garde exhibit curated by Gao Minglu and Li Xianting, and young artist Xiao Lu was “modifying” the conjoined phone booths she’d created with her then-lover Tang Song - a statement ringing with both personal and political overtones.

Naturally, the exhibit was shut down, other turning points played out on the greater stage of Beijing (and China as a whole), and the course of art and expression in this country was forever altered.

Now that phone booth has returned to the locale of its first public airing, and last Saturday night, a much more mature Xiao Lu stood in front of the piece, taking an interview with Sina.com, this time with no gun in sight. This is just one example of the surreal trip through time one can take by visiting this exhibit.

Taikang has managed to collect pieces that are historically significant, but also conceptually strong, and the exhibit is divided into thoughtful sections that help us to reflect on those themes. Unfortunately, the placards next to each artwork are all written in Chinese, but it’s easy enough to read the works even if you’re not deeply familiar with the Chinese contemporary art canon. The opening atrium starts with socialist realist paintings of Mao and other Communist Party themes, but the phone booths on the left side signal a turning point, where you enter into a hall subtitled “Pluralistic Patterns.”

There, you’re greeted by Cai Guo-Qiang’s gun-powder screen, Man, Eagle and Eye in the Sky, its luxurious aesthetic an ironic contrast to its explosive medium. In that same room you’ll also find Fang Lijun’s 1998.11.15 – elegant grayscale woodblock print panels that provide a break from his more hackneyed cynical realist paintings. A piece from Zhang Xiaogang’s “Bloodline” series makes an appearance, bought anonymously by Taikang during the big Ullens auction at Sotheby’s earlier this year. This hall is the bulk of the exhibit, where the heavy hitters of the contemporary art scene show their colors.

Another room further along shows new works by young artists. Video installations ranging from the painful (Ma Qiusha recounting her youth with a blade in her mouth) to the playful (two cars driving along the expressway slowly and in tandem) bring us squarely back to the present.

The Taikang Life Art Collection has a space in Caochangdi, called Taikang Space, which has continually exhibited parts of their collection. However, this is the first time we're getting a more complete look at what they've stored up after ten years - including pieces recently acquired when the Ullens sold a portion of their collection at Sotheby's in April.

This is a great exhibit to catch if you’d like quiet proof of why China’s contemporary art – and not just its art market – is worth paying attention to. Catch it before September 7.

Image History Existence
Aug 20-Sep 7
Free
National Art Museum of China (6401 2252/7076)

Photos from Taikang Life Insurance Company and by Marilyn Mai