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Thesis for VETRO Web Acknowledgements Added Zurich University of the Arts - ZHdK Essay for the Certificate for Advanced Studies - CAS « Contemporary Chinese Art Award » European Reverberations in Chinese Pop Art Wang Guangyi's Series « Great Criticism » staging the Chanel Logo « Chanel No 5, Flacons, 1921 - 1986 » Paris, France Author: Tatjana Schmied-Wörle 塔提亚娜 施密德沃勒 Inspired by: Michael Schindhelm 迈克尔 辛德海姆 Swiss Liaison with Studio Wang Guangyi : Wu Di from Chong Qing 吴迪 1 CONTENT 1. The artistic Personality Wang Guangyi: Consulting the online "Mirror" ............. 4 1.1 Getting in Touch: Biographical Insights.Wang Guangyi's Education Itinerary........... 4 1.2 The Artist's methapyhsical Interests and his historical Studies of classical Art........... 5 1.3 Wang Guangyi and his Work Series "Great Criticism"................................................ 8 2. Work Series "Great Criticism" with Chanel Logo ................................................ 9 2.1 European Perception: Culture - Antagonism creates multiple Paradoxes ................. 9 2.2 "Violation" of the classic Rules of Proportion and Perspective ................................... 10 2.3 Ciphers as constitutional Element of Wang Guanyi's political Posters ........................ 11 2.4 Body Language of Wang Guangyi's Figures: No Individualism intended ................... 12 3. Aura and History of the Chanel Brand. Public Relation Secrets of one of the globally most successful Brands ..................... 14 4. Conclusion: Wang Guangyi's Key Message in "Great Criticism". Provocative Portal and explosive Seed for a new Human Identity ......................... 16 APPENDIX I : Literature ............................................................................................ 19 - 20 APPENDIX II: Figures ................................................................................................ 22 - 29 2 Acknowledgements and Thanks The author wants to express her gratefulness to Michael Schindhelm who inspired this work with his seminars dedicated to urban developments “Urban Plasma”, in 2017 and 2018 in Zurich and Hongkong. Mr. Wu Di from Chon Qing, China, professional viola player, who graduated in 2005 from the Guildhall School in London, volunteered in a very generous manner to translate and manage the dialogue initiated with the artist in 2020 from English into Chinese. Mr. Wu Di lives and works out of Zurich since many years while being in continuous touch with his home country, China. Close friends of the author took the time to read first versions of this paper, such as Mrs. Forough S. Long, Mr. Dharma v. Dharmarajan, both London, and Dr. Dorothy Berthold, Munich. Mrs. Barbara Ruf, Zurich, contributed with her experience of quality management for publications in the field of fine arts. © Tatjana Schmied-Wörle, all rights reserved. Zurich, March 2021 ………………………………………………………………………… Declaration of Authorship The presented work has been created in an indipendent manner and without any external help. The author takes full responsability for the work. Tatjana Schmied – Wörle Zurich, August 16 th , 2018 ………………………………………………………………………… 3 1. The artistic Personality Wang Guangyi: Consulting the online "Mirror" The European novice researching the Chinese artist Wang Guangyi comes across pictures of an impressive personality smoking exclusive Cuban cigars. Long androgynous hairstyle, huge, colourful "pop - art" paintings which the European eye involuntarily connects with Andy Warhol. Attractive gallery and museum scenes with elegant society are Google's spontaneous answer to Wang Guangyi. Famous names pop up after 1990, such as Centre Pompidou in Paris, - Galery Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris and the Kunstmuseum Bern among others; - exhibitons in Basel, Luzern, Hong Kong, Seoul and Shenzhen are listed (Paparoni, 2013, p.404). Consulting Christie's and Sotheby's public available information, returns bids between 500 000 USD - 1,5 Mio USD for large size works ( artist.christies.com/Guangyi-Wang-- 25139.aspx). Oil painting, installation and sculpture are mentioned as the domains of the artist. We also learn that prominent Chinese leaders such as Jiang Zemin and Li Peng ornate their private art collections with works of Wang Guangyi (www.art.city/Wang-Guangyi-Artist-1663/ retrieved February 2nd , 2018). The artist is further named as an advocate of the "85 Art New Wave" movement and as a member of the "Northern Art Group" which existed from 1985 to 1987 (Hung, 2014, p.68). Wang Guangyi is described as a personality searching and forming his self - identity as a "rational artist" who expresses ideas through both, images and words (Hung, 2104, p.102) . Bringing order into this multi-faceted kaleidoscope of the online information "circus" leads us to biographic information about the artist. Who is Wang Guangyi ? 1.1 Getting in Touch: Biographical Insights. Wang Guangyi's Education Itinerary. Wang Guangyi's birthplace is in Harbin, Heilongjiang, in northern China in 1957. In his youth, Wang Guangyi grows up during the Cultural Revolution and gets involved as a member of the "little red guards". Wang attends Harbin No 19 middle school and enters a youth art training class at the Harbin Children's palace beginning his formal art education (Paparoni, 2013, p.392). He starts to paint watercolour landscapes and oil still - lifes. He also produces reproductions of Chinese propaganda posters (Paparoni, 2013,p. 392). Mao is his idol during the years of Mao's Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976). His teenage years from age 9 to 19 are marked by the political Chinese reality of Mao Tse Tung's communism. Other strong influences in his youth were train rides to distant Chinese regions with his father, Wang Mincai from the Han ethnic group, who had worked for the railways. His mother, Ji Shurong, is a housewife from the Manchu ethnic group (Paparoni, 2013, p. 392). "His 4 mother's love for paper cutting and other folk arts will serve as an important inspiration for Wang's future as an artist" (Paparoni, 2013, p. 392). As the entire country, his family was poor. Having grown up, Wang Guangyi first follows his father by working for the Chinese railways, but trying at the same time to realize his strong dream to become an artist (Smith, 2009, p.57). Three times his applications to art academies are rejected until finally, the fourth application to the Zhejiang Academy of Art was accepted. Wang Guangyi was admitted as one ten accepted students in the year 1980 (Hung, 2011, p. 102). Form age 23 until 27 Wang spends his years in the academy completed with a masters degree in 1984 from the oil painting class. We can feel Wang Guangyi's perseverance and determination evolving as a characteristic of his strong personality. He had developed already as a young child a concrete vision for his own live which he persued in a tenacious manner step by step. The involvement as "little red guard" with the cultural revolution ( Paparoni, 2013, p. 392) during Mao's times, was an important constituent for the development of Wang Guangyi's visual and mental standards. Political posters, populated with the strangely happy people and smiling faces of soldiers, farmers and workers, generated by the communist partys' propaganda machinery left inextinguishable mental traces. The Chinese Art World in the sixties and early seventies was a managed Art World surveyed in tight manner by the Chinese government. Only in the late 70ies did known artists embark on a more critical stance towards the government induced line of thought. The Star Art Group for example attracted attention with spectacular actions in 1979. Involvement in government critical art carried great risks for any artist. In the context of the China /Avantgarde exhibition in Beijing just months before the student unrest erupted in Tiananmen Square in 1989, three of the eight Mao paintings by Wang Guangyi were exhibited. 'As soon as one of the Mao paintings was reproduced in Time Magazine , Wang Guangyi attracted the attention of both the institute in Zhuhai where he was teaching, as well as from officials of the Zhuhai special economic zone'. "He was summoned and told to find another position within six months. Wang Guangyi was now a martyr to the cause of new art; an avantgarde rebel on the edge." (Smith, 2009, p.62 and p.63). This blow curtailed his public exposure in China for almost a decade. Another participating artist, Xiao Lu, even "fired a live shot from a gun into her installation work, intended to illustrate the idea that art was well and truly dead" (Smith, 2009, p.63). 1.2 The Artist's methapyhsical Interests and his historical Studies of classical Art With the death of Mao Zedong (1976) the political climate changed significantly. The new Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, persued a policy of reform and openness, reversing 5 the lock up of China under Mao Zedong. Wang Guangyi had to cope at the age of 19 with a country which had lost its idols. The collapse of the communist regime Mao style, had wiped out a spiritual consensus and had created a huge mental vacuum. Unlike in Russia for example, the majority of the Chinese people does not adhere clearly to one and the same religion. Religious convictions in China are rather replaced by a certain hold of Confucianism, Taosim and Buddhism and may be better described as a philosophical system. 'China does not posess an all embracing religious sensibility' (Smith, 2009, p.58). The mix of philosophies present in China rather contribute to a more laical nature of the Chinese state which is a main difference in comparison with Europe. Western live style concepts were difficult to access or oppressed until the end of the 1970 ies, therefore, the young generation was not tuned and could not opt for a simple adoption of Western live style concepts, but rather researched an own philosophy of live. About Wang Guangyi we know, that he had preferred to study works of Friedrich Hegel, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Max Weber instead of doing standardized practical artistic work during his years of study at the art academy (Hung, 2014, p.169). We also know, that Wang was heavily influenced by the art history book "Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (1960)" by Ernst H.
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