The market for contemporary Chinese art is one of the fastest growing internationally, attracting buyers from all over the world, including, increasingly, within China itself. There are thriving artistic communities throughout China as well as an unprecedented proliferation of major art museums and districts, including Beijing’s now world famous 798 Art Zone. At the same time, the arrest and detention of artist Ai Weiwei in 2011 has focused international attention on China’s politics and issues of state control. This book sheds light on the development of Chinese art since the confirmation of Deng Xiaoping’s so-called policy of ‘Opening and Reform’ in 1978, putting the art into context both within China and internationally.

Paul Gladston provides a critical mapping of ideas and practices that have shaped contemporary Chinese art, showing how they bind the art – as a consequence of artistic complicity and/or resistance – to structures of power and state not just within but also outside China. While the principal focus is on art produced by artists from mainland China, the book also discusses contemporary art made by artists from Taiwan and Hong Kong-Macau, as well others belonging to diasporic Chinese communities.

Unravelling the complexities of politics, artistic practice and Chinese culture, Contemporary Chinese Art is an essential companion for readers interested in contemporary art or Chinese culture, history or politics.