17
Once Exhibited, Twice Removed: Artists and
Institutions in Contemporary China
Pauline J. Yao
There is a widely held consensus that contemporary art began in China in 1979. So precise is this
view that the moment of inception is pinpointed to an exact day: September 27, 1979. This date
coincides with the Stars Group’s first public exhibition – an infamous two-day affair that took place
on the fences outside the National Art Gallery in Beijing. The landmark event, earmarked as an act
of defiance and dissent, has become the measuring stick by which contemporary artists have looked
to validate their status as critical outsiders to a State-run and autocratic art system and define their
position vis-à-vis established arts institutions. The vanguard path for art that the Stars helped to
put into motion, however, is far from a straightforward one. Instead it is characterized by internal
conflicts and zigzags from noncompliance and resistance on the one side, to seeking acceptance,
acknowledgement, and legitimization on the other. Still, their initial gesture of occupying public
space, voicing their opinions, and using official channels to substantiate new art forms acts as a
benchmark for nearly all following practices that explore art in public contexts or that proclaim a
critical stance against the mainstream.
An exhibition like
Light from Light
represents just how far things have come since 1979 – a moment
when artists were not accepted into the official domain, much less welcomed through the form
of commissioned works in a publicly accessible non art-specific context. Witnessing this kind of
exhibition has led to me to reflect on the recent history of Chinese art exhibitions and ongoing
relationships between artists and the space of official (government sanctioned) art culture. Over
the years these relationships have fluctuated from acceptance to rejection to – more recently –
forms of instrumentalization and co-optation. As contemporary art in China grows in popularity
and visibility among a wider section of the general public, there remain key underlying questions
concerning art’s ability to function autonomously and to go against prescribed systems and
institutional structures in the art world. Given that in China it has always been the established
institutions that control the definition of art, the art exhibition therefore becomes the paramount
form by which the categories and boundaries of art are articulated to a public. The exhibitions of
the Stars Group remain crucial historical markers because they symbolize a moment when the
approved definition of art – who can make it, what it should look like, where it can be shown and
who can see it – was challenged. My interest in tracing the history of exhibitions in China comes
froma desire to further understandwhat role exhibitions can play in defining art as well as contours
of an autonomous space for artistic production.
Although it is often treated as the opening salvo for the Chinese avant-garde, it isworth remembering
that the first
Stars Art Exhibition
did not occur in isolation, nor should its artists be viewed as
renegade players willfully acting out of contempt for the established system. Their first exhibition
did go through a process of approval, and in fact the Stars were granted subsequent exhibitions both
inside and outside the esteemed National Art Gallery within a year of their initial outcry
1
. It is also
revealing that in 1980 the Stars Group officially registered with the Beijing Artists’ Association
2
,
effectively joining the ranks of the establishment and dissuading others from aspiring to set up a
space of autonomous independence. From this perspective we might view the goals of the Stars as
aligned with an anti-establishment stance more than an avant-garde one. Following John Clark, the
former can be described as a type of loyal opposition that does not aim to subvert the establishment
