Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A detailed and accessible guide to the wave of creativity currently sweeping through Chinese art.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

A must buy for college libraries, this book introduces 30 contemporary Chinese artists and their work in fine color illustrations. Besides the works of each artist, Nuridsany (an international exhibitions organizer) reveals in word and photograph their working and living environments, giving a fuller picture of their work and insights about the artists. An 11-page preface by the author sets the stage for individual discussions (which follow) of the artists and their works. The author notes that the arts project a vitality and incredible range of both subject and medium quite at odds with most of our conceptions about it, in today's China. Emphasizing its dynamism and modernity, Nuridsany treats the newness of Chinese art in a sympathetic manner, and writes about China in such current areas as the SARS epidemic, student protests, traffic snarls, and the gallery scene. He notes that political emphasis has been replaced by aesthetic and social concerns. There are brief biographies of each of the artists emphasizing their exhibition histories, and an annotated chronology of important political and cultural events in China, beginning in 1949 with the founding of the PRC. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through professionals. D. K. Haworth emeritus, Carleton College