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Xu Bing

Beyond the Book from the Sky

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

Editors:
  1. Sarah E. Fraser

    1. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

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  2. Yu-Chieh Li

    1. School of Art and Design, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Analyzes aesthetics, materials, and the participatory elements of post-Mao Chinese art
  • Explores the reception of contemporary Chinese artists across regions
  • Offers thematic presentations of contemporary art in transcultural contexts

Part of the book series: Chinese Contemporary Art Series (CCAS)

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
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  2. Reactivating Tradition

    • Bing XU, Yu-Chieh Li
    Pages 1-23

  3. In Dialogue with Xu Bing

    • Bing XU, Sarah E. Fraser
    Pages 25-35

  4. Audience Participation in Xu Bing’s Works: Transcultural Issues in Global Contemporary Art

    • Bing XU, Sarah E. Fraser, Monica Juneja, Barbara Mittler, Birgit Hopfener, Melanie Trede
    Pages 37-57

  5. Beyond Ink: Contemporary Experimental Ink Art

    • Sarah E. Fraser
    Pages 59-74

  6. Borrowed Bodies, Native Tongues: Xu Bing’s Animalworks

    • Meiling Cheng
    Pages 75-86

  7. Two-Dimensionality in Installation Art: The Case of Xu Bing, Wenda Gu, and Yang Jiechang

    • Yu-Chieh Li
    Pages 87-96

  8. From Small Woodcuts to Experimental Printmaking: Xu Bing in the 1980s

    • Yao WU
    Pages 97-107

  9. Behind the Painting: Xu Bing’s Hybrid Landscapes

    • John Clark
    Pages 109-114

  10. Phoenix Project: An Afterimage of Labor

    • Xinran Guo
    Pages 115-126

  11. The Changing Paradigm of Realism in China: The Case of Xu Bing

    • Xiao YANG
    Pages 127-136

  12. Art as a Vehicle for Social Change: A Biographical History of Xu Bing’s Œuvre

    • Chia Chi Jason Wang
    Pages 137-151

  13. Core Events of Contemporary Art from Mainland China, 1980–2015, Mainland China, the Asia-Pacific Region, Europe, and the Americas

    • Yu-Chieh Li
    Pages 153-177

  14. Back Matter

    Pages 179-182
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Keywords

About this book

This volume offers a path-breaking reassessment of Xu Bing’s oeuvre by analyzing the diverse cultural environments in which his work has developed since the Book from the Sky.  It contains three lecture transcripts and eight art historical essays; these explore themes such as Xu’s animal works, audience participation, new ink, prints, realism, socialist spectacle, and word play. A critical question addressed in this volume is what carries art to a global level beyond regional histories and cultural symbols.




Absorbing critical essays on contemporary Chinese aesthetics addressing the social context and philosophical concerns that underlie Xu Bing’s key works. The authors analyze Xu’s art, shedding light on the tangled history of socialism and neoliberalism in the Post-Mao period.


--Prof. Dr. Lothar Ledderose, Senior Professor, Institute of East Asian Art, Universität Heidelberg

Editors and Affiliations

  • Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sarah E. Fraser

  • School of Art and Design, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Yu-Chieh Li

About the editors

Sarah E. Fraser is the Chair of Chinese Art History and director of Institute of East Asian Art History, Heidelberg University. Her publications include Performing the Visual (2004), How Chinese Art Became Chinese: War, Archaeology, and the Refashioning of Sino-Modernity (1928-1945) (forthcoming), and Women Cross Media: East Asian Photography, Prints, and Porcelain from the Dresden State Art Collection (Arthistoricum, forthcoming).


Yu-Chieh Li is the Judith Neilson Postdoctoral Fellow in Contemporary Art at UNSW Art & Design, Sydney. She was an Andrew W. Mellon C-MAP Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art, NY from 2013 to 2015 and adjunct researcher at Tate Research Centre: Asia. Her publications appear in Art in Translation, Art Monthly Australasia, and post: Notes on Modern and Contemporary Art Around the Globe.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Xu Bing

  • Book Subtitle: Beyond the Book from the Sky

  • Editors: Sarah E. Fraser, Yu-Chieh Li

  • Series Title: Chinese Contemporary Art Series

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3064-7

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-15-3063-0Published: 21 July 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-15-3066-1Published: 22 July 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-15-3064-7Published: 20 July 2020

  • Series ISSN: 2199-9058

  • Series E-ISSN: 2199-9066

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XX, 182

  • Number of Illustrations: 39 b/w illustrations, 79 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Arts

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