Abstract

The past few years have represented a radical shift in the way the world views collectors of contemporary art. With globalization, collectors from around the world engage in shared platforms that were not available in the past, such as art fairs, biennales, and exhibition events, which enable collectors to share and promote their respective individual and national identities. This is especially true for collectors of contemporary art in China. In recent years Chinese collectors have allocated a significant amount of personal wealth and time toward creating a platform for both the Chinese and global art communities to engage in a stimulating cross-cultural dialogue. Many Chinese collectors of contemporary art now aim to create a long-term dialogue with the local general public that reflects the challenges of today, coupled with a vision for tomorrow. What makes their collections remarkable is their ability to blend Chinese, Asian, and Western pieces into a narrative of globalization and multiculturalism.

Highlights

  • The past few years have represented a radical shift in the way the world views collectors of contemporary art

  • Scholars have argued that the contemporary history and culture of China is a direct result of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) intervention and interpretation of their own history since 1949. While this claim can be substantiated up to the end of the twentieth century, through Jonathan Spence’s The Search For Modern China, this paper aims to put forward the argument that the Chinese government has radically shifted its stance, allowing most private museums, institutions, and art collectors to freely create a new, idiocentric, laissez-faire system to publicly engage in building a new contemporary cultural history that does not necessarily accord with the collective CCP narrative of the past

  • I.I Government contemporary art zones development. At both the national and local levels the Chinese government has been instrumental in creating contemporary art zones across the nation, from major international cities to lesser-known, remote areas

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Summary

Introduction

The past few years have represented a radical shift in the way the world views collectors of contemporary art. While this claim can be substantiated up to the end of the twentieth century, through Jonathan Spence’s The Search For Modern China, this paper aims to put forward the argument that the Chinese government has radically shifted its stance, allowing most private museums, institutions, and art collectors to freely create a new, idiocentric, laissez-faire system to publicly engage in building a new contemporary cultural history that does not necessarily accord with the collective CCP narrative of the past The origins of this relaxed stance can be traced back to Deng Xiaoping’s economic and open door policies in the late 1970s. This perhaps left visitors to the exhibition wondering: how involved is the CCP in this current state of affairs in the art community in China, especially in a state-owned museum?

I.I Government contemporary art zones development
I.II Government building of Shanghai Free-Trade Zone
The collectors
II.I The influence of private museums
II.II The art fair as an institution
Art as a method of urgency addressing social issues and contemporary history
III.I Contemporary art and cultural history: a case study
Findings
Conclusion
Full Text
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