The China Project

71 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection endnotes 1 Nigel Cameron, ‘The historical impact of foreign art on Chinese painting’, in Lu Jie and Karen Smith (eds), History of Chinese Oil Painting from Realism to Post- Modernism , Manfred Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong, 1995, pp.11–15. 2 James Cahill and Hsingyuan Tao, ‘Oil painting in China: Rejecting, reshaping or replacing the tradition?’, in Lu Jie and Karen Smith (eds), History of Chinese Oil Painting from Realism to Post-Modernsim , pp.8–11. 3 Joan Leibold Cohen, Y unnan School: A Renaissance in Chinese Painting , Allan H Fingerhut, Minneapolis, 1988, p.10. 4 Julia Andrews, ‘Traditional painting in new China: Guohua and the Anti-Rightist Campaign’, The Journal of Asian Studies , vol.49, no.3, August 1990, p.565. 5 Cahill and Tao, p.9. 6 Nicole Tse, ‘The characteristics of oil paintings in tropical Southeast Asia’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Melbourne, submitted 2008; Selina Halim, ‘Ageing characteristics of Winsor and Newton and Marie’s oil paints in humid tropical climates: A preliminary investigation into the method of testing the ageing behaviour of artists’ oil paints in humid tropical climates’, Master of Arts thesis, University of Melbourne, 2007. 7 Yin Shuangxi, ‘The Open Door (1976–1989)’, in Lu Jie and Karen Smith (eds), History of Chinese Oil Painting from Realism to Post-Modernism , p.31. 8 Claire Roberts, telephone interview with Guo Zhonglian, 25 November 2008. 9 Roberts, telephone interview with Guo Zhonglian. 10 Gillian Osmond, email communication with Ah Xian, 13 October 2008. 11 Gillian Osmond, email communication with Ah Xian, 19 December 2008. Ah Xian continues: ‘For many years, I lived and painted in a 16-square-meter student accommodation room located in the People’s University. Later, I moved into my wife’s home . . . where we had a 12-square-meter room for everything. It was our bedroom, dinning room, living room and my “studio” as well. Our table and chairs were foldable. I even separated our queen-size bed into half and “created” more room to get around . . . It was reflected in a little statement I wrote for an exhibition held at the residence of Australian Cultural Counsellor to Beijing Mr Nicholas Jose: “. . . I changed our bed of marriage from double to single in term of making our love even warmer . . .”. It was a difficult time but really unforgettable’. 12 Lu Peng, ‘The spiritual history of depression and sentiment: The art of Zhang Xiaogang’, in Riitta Valorinta, Lu Peng, Julia Colman, Virpi Nikkari, Zhang Xiaogang [exhibition catalogue], Sara Hilden Art Museum, Tampere, Finland, 2007, pp.67–80; Zhang Xiaogang, ‘Letter to Mao Xuhui, 18 December 1989’, in Zhang Xiaogang , p.78–80. 13 Roberts, telephone interview with Guo Zhonglian. 14 Osmond, email communication with Ah Xian, 13 October 2008. 15 Guan Wei, email communication with Anne Carter, 13 October 2008. Ah Xian and Guan Wei travelled to Australia in 1989, and both returned to live in Australia in 1990 following the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. Both artists have recently returned to China and have studios in both countries. 16 Guan Wei has explained that the resemblance to scroll paintings was unintentional; he went on to say: ‘The school was renovating. They were throwing out all the old window frames. I was poor and couldn’t afford much in the way of materials. I thought, they’ll do for strectchers, so I nicked them’. Although Guan Wei no longer has the need to use window frames for his works, he continues to do so as ‘he remains fond of the form’. See Linda Jaivin, ‘Guan Wei: Paint me’, Australian Art Collector , no.20, April–June 2002, pp.54–6. 17 Natalie King, ‘Chinese whispers: The work of Guan Wei’ in Guan Wei , Craftsman House, Australia, 2006, pp.78. 18 Melissa Chiu, ‘Prodigal sons: Chinese artists return to the homeland’, Yishu , vol.4, no.2, June 2005, p.15. Paper presented as part of the conference Displacements: Transcultural Encounters in Contemporary Chinese Art. 19 Nicholas Jose, ‘Brokering a space: New Chinese art 1989–92’, Art Monthly Australia , no.53, September 1992, p.9. 20 Ah Xian, ‘Self exile of the soul’, TAASA Review , vol.8, no.1, 1999, p.8. 21 Linda Jaivin, ‘Ah Xian: Recent works in porcelain’, Art Asia Pacific , no.33, 2002, p.30. 22 Osmond, email communication with Ah Xian, 13 October 2008. 23 Abigail Fitzgibbons, Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) curatorial files, February 2007. 24 Fitzgibbons, QAG curatorial files. The Sino-Japanese War resulted from Japanese aggression against China; it began in 1937, and, within 18 months, Japan had occupied much of eastern China. This occupation ended with Japan’s surrender to the Allies in 1945, at the end of World War Two. 25 Fitzgibbons, QAG curatorial files. 26 Roberts, telephone interview with Guo Zhonglian. 27 Roberts, telephone interview with Guo Zhonglian. 28 Roberts, telephone interview with Guo Zhonglian.