The China Project

298 1970 China launches its first satellite. 1971 The PRC replaces the Republic of China (now based in Taiwan) on the United Nations Security Council. 1972 United States President Richard Nixon visits China, beginning normalisation of relations between the two countries. Australia establishes diplomatic relations with the PRC under Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who visited China while in opposition the previous year. 1974 The army of terracotta warriors buried in the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BCE), is unearthed near Xian. 1975 The non-official No Name Group, which focuses on subjective themes such as portraiture and landscape rather than promoting socialist ideology, holds its first exhibition in Beijing. Exhibitions of Canadian and Australian landscape painting open in Beijing and travel to Shanghai and Nanjing. 1976 Zhou Enlai dies. Mass demonstrations in Tiananmen Square honouring his memory are violently repressed. Mao Zedong dies. Members of the Gang of Four, who played a key role in the more repressive policies of the past decade and which include Mao’s widow Jian Qing, agitate for power but are arrested and convicted for crimes against the state, effectively ending the Cultural Revolution. 1977 National university entrance examinations resume after their suspension in 1966, stimulating a widespread return to higher education. Fine Arts (Meishu) magazine, which was suspended during the Cultural Revolution, resumes publication. 1978 Deng Xiaoping (b.1904) becomes leader of the CCP. He begins the process of economic reform, described as ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ which, in the following decades, sees the development of a market economy and private sector. An Open Door policy is adopted to encourage foreign trade and investment, with four Special Economic Zones (SEZs) established in southern China in 1979. Social reforms encourage intellectual debates about humanism and individual freedoms, sparking a democracy movement known as the Beijing Spring. NAMOC presents ‘Nineteenth-Century French Rural Landscape Painting’, the first large exhibition of foreign art since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Rustic Realism becomes prominent, with painters depicting the influence of the period on people from rural areas and outlying provinces, proving influential on filmmakers such as Chen Kaige ( Yellow Earth 1984) and Zhang Yimou ( Red Sorghum 1987). Western art publications become available, and Chinese journals begin covering Western art. 1979 Diplomatic relations are established with the United States. Deng Xiaoping travels to Washington to meet with President Jimmy Carter. The One Child policy is implemented. Murals at the Beijing International Airport are unveiled, with Y uan Yunsheng’s Water-splashing festival: Ode to life generating controversy over nudity in public art. It is boarded over in 1981. The Scar Painting movement emerges, its name a reference to the emotional wounds inflicted by the Cultural Revolution. The Stars Group, which includes Ai Weiwei, holds its first exhibition, without permission, on the fence outside NAMOC. Its closure by police leads to a demonstration, and an exhibition is later held in Beihai Park. 1980 The Stars Group holds an official exhibition at NAMOC. 1982 The Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign is launched to stem Western influences, such as humanist philosophy, abstract art and ‘art for art’s sake’. Nevertheless, exhibitions of American Modernism, German Expressionism, French contemporary painting and the work of Edvard Munch and Pablo Picasso are held in Beijing over the next few years. 1984 The ‘Sixth National Art Exhibition’ attempts to revive the forms and content of Cultural Revolution-era art, creating a major backlash by artists. The Northern Art Group (Beifang qunti) which includes Wang Guangyi, is formed in Harbin, Heilongjian Province. 1985 Liberal reforms, including the end of the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign, encourage a nationwide flowering of avant-garde art, film, literature and music, becoming known as the ’85 New Wave. Over 80 art groups are formed over the next few years. A Robert Rauschenberg exhibition is held in Beijing and Lhasa, the first of an American contemporary artist, making a major impact on the local scene. 1986 The Southwest Art Group, which includes Zhang Xiaogang, is formed in Kunming, Yunnan Province. Key exhibitions include ‘Xiamen Dada’ in Xiamen (featuring Huang Yongping), ‘70% Red, 25% Black, and 5% White’ in Hangzhou (featuring Ni Haifeng), and ‘Concept 21: Art Before Your Eyes’ at Beijing University. 1988 Xu Bing exhibits the first version of A book from the sky 1987–91 at NAMOC . 1989 Demonstrators advocating wider social reform gather over six weeks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. On 4 June the military send in tanks and open fire, killing and injuring hundreds of people, generating international outrage and the emigration of many students, intellectuals and artists. CCP General Secretary Zhao Ziyang refuses to support martial law. He is replaced by Jiang Zemin and is kept under virtual house arrest until his death in 2005. China’s first national exhibition of avant-garde art, ‘China/Avant-Garde’, opens at NAMOC featuring works by 186 artists. It is closed twice; firstly, following the performance by Xiao Lu and Tang Song, which involved shooting at Xiao Lu’s installation with a pistol and, secondly, following anonymous bomb threats. ‘Magiciens de la Terre’, one of the first major exhibitions of global art, is organised by the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and features three Chinese artists.