China Landscape: Selections from the Taikang Collection 2019 March 21 – May 5, 2019 Opening Reception: March 21, Thursday, 4:00pm Producer: Taikang Insurance Group General Organizer: Chen Dongsheng General Coordinator: Ying Weiwei Curator: Tang Xin Artists: Ai Xuan, Ai Zhongxin, Cai Guo-Qiang, Chen Ren, Chen Shaoxiong, Chen Yifei, Chen Zhen, Ding Fang, Ding Yi, Fang Lijun, Gao Weigang, Hu Xiangqian, Jiang Zhaohe, Jiang Zhuyun, Jin Shangyi, Li Yo u son g , Liu Chuang, Liu Kaiqu, Liu Wei, Liu Wei, Liu Xiaodong, Liu Xinyi, Liu Ye, Luo Zhongli, Ma Qiusha, Mao Xuhui, Nabuqi, Qiu Xiaofei, Shang Yang, Shen Yaoyi, Shi Chong, Su Tianci, Sui Jianguo, Wang Guangle, Wang Guangyi, Wang Sishun, Wang Yuyang, Wu Dayu, Wu Guanzhong, Wu Zuoren, Xie Molin, Xu Bing, Xu Wenkai (aaajiao), Yang Jiechang, Yao Qingmei, Yuan Qingyi, Yu Yo uha n , Zeng Fanzhi, Zhang Peili, Zhang Wenyuan, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhao Bandi, Zhao Zhao, PSFO, Zhou Chunya Address: No.A07, 798 Art Zone No.2 Jiuxianqiao Rd, Chaoyang District, Beijing, CHINA Open Hours: 11:00 - 17:00 Monday to Sunday About the Exhibition Taikang Insurance Group will present “China Landscape: Selections from the Taikang Collection 2019” from 21st March to 5th May 2019 at No.A07, 798 Art Zone. The exhibition is the third time we show Taikang Collection publicly, following its inaugural presentation at the National Art Museum of China in 2011 and the Wanlin Art Museum of Wuhan University in 2015. Warming up the inauguration of Taikang Art Museum, Chen Dongsheng, Chairman of the Board and Chief executive Officer of Taikang Insurance Group, plays the leading role of the general organizer of the exhibition, while Ying Weiwei, Secretary of The Board, Assistant President of Taikang Insurance Group plays the role of the general coordinator. “China Landscape” is curated by Ta ng Xin, Head of Art Collection of Taikang Insurance Group and the director of Taikang Space. The exhibition juxtaposes contemporary art and Mao-era art, which shows their historical and complex connection. “China Landscape: Selections from the Taikang Collection 2019” is conceived as an experimental case study for art collection as an institutional practice and productive force in the art and cultural field. The exhibition departs from the Taikang academic research and collection system, positioning in the present, re-examine the past, explore in depth and focus on presenting the history of contemporary art of China since 1942 and its complex development. “China Landscape” comprises approximately 70 works of art, covering different types of mediums by 55 artists, across three generations, as well as important archival materials about art and society since the 1940s; its curatorial approach purposefully deviates from the conventional collection framework and chronological narrative, instead focuses on individual works of art and examining and studying the artist’s practice, which aims at rediscovering its inner logic and complex relationships. By juxtaposing three historical periods, namely, from 1942 to pre-economic reform period, from China’s economic reform to the present, and thereon towards to the future, among these artists, the works of art that most embody their respective time were chosen; “China Landscape” repositions the linear and chronological narrative into nine parallel narratives about history and reality, tradition and contemporary, art and politics, that underscores the complex relationships between art from the pre-reform period and contemporary art, in order to present a humanistic landscape steeped in historical contexts. “China Landscape” originates from more than a decade of acquisition for the Taikang Collection, and the lasting and extensive practice at Taikang Space based on the notions of “Retrospection and Encouragement”. On the one hand, Taikang Space aims to help the enterprise to build a historically informed system of art collection, while re-investigating into the history of art that has already taken place, its focus into the future, exploring the direction of artistic development, for which the exhibition program and activities of the space have been designed to follow these two directions. On the other hand, the Taikang Collection has adopted research and practice as the subjects about the institution, and sets the development of system and academic studies as its goal, where collection in this sense has become a mode of artistic production. In 2015, the Taikang Collection, one of its kind in Mainland China, have been listed in the Global Corporate Collections published by Deutsche Standards Press along with internationally renowned collections such as JP Morgan, Credit Swiss, the Deutsch Bank, Cartier, AXA and others. The institutional practices at Taikang Space and its establishment of a systematic art collection are inseparable from the Taikang Life Group’s support over the years, its effort in pushing forward the development of Chinese art ecosystem through acquisition, exhibition and research, and by integrating these shared experiences, it has developed into a unique model of “Taikang Insurance Group + Taikang Space = Financial Support + Academic Research”, and through institutional practice and collection, to further the research in the history of artistic development of contemporary Chinese art. The collection encourages everyday research, and the everyday research and practice at the institution in turn, feed into the collection. In this sense, “China Landscape” is in fact, an evaluation of this model and experience, which considers art collection as an effort to re-open Chinese modern and contemporary art history, an experiment to panoramically document the art of China today, an effort and a prelude to the new phase towards the opening of the Taikang Art Museum. Taikang Collection Taikang Life Insurance Co., Ltd is the first financial enterprise in China to have launched its own contemporary art collection. Led by the sustained effort of Taikang Space in building the collection, even in its initial stages it is an art collection system significant in both art- historical value and scale. The collection houses a variety of works representative of different developmental stages in art history, including influential works by iconic artists. The first Chinese art collection to propose a systematic approach to collecting, Taikang’s endeavour in collection and research spans early modernist paintings and photography from 1930s China, early red revolutionary art, socialist realist art produced between the founding of People’s Republic of China in 1949 and Mao’s passing in 1976, and prominent contemporary works from China. The Taikang Collection re-examines the origin and the fundamental historical framework of Chinese modern and contemporary art, and maintains a growing archive of primary art documents, which are subsequently shared by Taikang Space or other professional institutions in a variety of forms including exhibition and publication. The Taikang Collection is also the first institutional collection in China to exhibit publicly. The first show of Taikang Collection was “Image.History.existence - Taikang Life Art Collection 15th Anniversary exhibition”, held at The National Art Museum of China in Beijing in 2011. The selected artworks from the collection were successively shown in exhibitions held at Taking Space and Wanlin Art Museum of Wuhan University. Meanwhile, Taikang Collection has also set out to unearth the academic value of its collection. As Meanwhile, the Taikang Collection has also set out to document the academic value of its collection. As it further develops its research and optimizes its exhibition conditions, Taikang Space will cooperate with a number of academic institutions in China and abroad to present more works from the collection to the public. Taikang Insurance Group Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Beijing, Taikang Insurance Group Inc. (formerly known as Taikang Life Insurance) is a large insurance and financial service conglomerate. The company operates through three main businesses: insurance, asset management and health and elderly care. As of 31 December 2018, Taikang had managed over RMB 1,400 billion of assets. Guided by the “market-oriented, professional, rule-based and internationalized” philosophy, Taikang is dedicated to its “Great Health + Internet” strategy. Through its 3,900 nationwide distribution channels, online platform as well as 700,000 employees and sales representatives, Taikang aims to create an O2O health ecosystem driven by the “Four-in-One” business model featuring “vibrant elderly care, high-end medical services, premier wealth management and ultimate end-of-life care”, providing integrated services from insurance to asset management, health and elderly care. Taikang Insurance Group has a number of subsidiaries which include Taikang Life, Taikang Asset, Taikang Pension, Taikang Community, Ta ika ng Health and Tk.cn. Its business scope covers a wide range of fields, such as life insurance, online property and casualty insurance, pension, enterprise annuity, asset management, health and elderly care, health management, commercial real estate and offshore businesses. Over the past two decades, Taikang has served a total of 262 million clients and has been ranked among “China’s Top 500 Companies” for 14 years in a row. In 2016, by acquiring from Sotheby’s nearly 8 million shares with USD 230 million, Taikang held 13.52% of the company and became its largest shareholder. In 2018, Taikang Insurance Group was listed in the Fortune Global