New art for a new country

From 1949 to 1978, photography in the People's Republic of China was reserved for state propaganda: It served exclusively to convey an idealized image of communist rule. When China opened up to world trade at the end of the 1970s after the death of Mao, photography experienced a sudden upswing as an expression of art and documentation. Art colleges began to teach photography and information about Western contemporary art became accessible. In the 1990s, a young generation of artists, who had previously worked mainly as painters, rebelled against academic rules and experimented with freer approaches to photography. This resulted in works that combined photography with installation, performance art or conceptual art. The Cleveland Museum of Art is showing works by eight artists of this generation in the exhibition Refocusing Photography: China at the Millennium. The show runs from June 8 to November 16.

The exhibits include works by Zhang Huan, Liu Zheng, Hong Hao, Hai Bo and Qi Sheng. The artists were all born in the 1960s and experienced the country's radical change from conformity to consumerism and a tendency towards individualization as young people. They contributed to the development of a new visual language and created artworks that dealt with the recent history of their country and the resulting change in their own identity as Chinese. The artworks on display are all part of the museum's collection.