The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication will host Art and China after 1989: New Perspectives. The symposium, which includes 15 emerging scholars in the field of contemporary Chinese art and global art history, will take place on Friday, Sept. 30 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at NYU (239 Greene Street, Floor 8).
The event is a research initiative held in conjunction with planning for the upcoming exhibition Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in the fall of 2017.
Co-organized by the curators of the exhibition – Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator, Asian Art and Senior Advisor, Global Arts at the Guggenheim Museum, and Phil Tinari, Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing – as well as Lily Chumley, Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU Steinhardt, the symposium invites 15 young scholars to present their recent research on contemporary art and visual culture from China. The full symposium program can be viewed at the event’s website.
Renowned scholar and curator Pi Li, the Sigg Senior Curator for Chinese Art at M+, Hong Kong, will be the symposium’s keynote speaker. Chumley, author of Creativity Class: Art School and Culture Work in Post-Socialist China (Princeton University Press, 2016), will welcome attendees with a talk on globalization and its exceptions.
The Guggenheim Museum’s 2017 Art and China after 1989 exhibition aims to contribute to the scholarly and public understanding of experimental art and discourse from China spanning 1989 to 2008, arguably the most transformative period of modern Chinese and recent world history. The largest exhibition of this subject ever mounted in a U.S. museum, it offers a fresh, interpretative survey of this work from an international perspective framed by the geopolitical dynamics attending the end of the Cold War, the spread of globalization, and the rise of China.
The Sept. 30 symposium is free and open to the public. Attendees must register through the event’s website; space is limited.
At NYU, the symposium is co-sponsored by the NYU Global Research Initiatives, Office of the Provost; NYU Department of Art History; NYU China House; NYU East Asian Studies; and is supported by a grant from the Kaifeng Foundation. At the Guggenheim, Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
About the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU
Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC) is a department within NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, advancing scholarship in all areas of media, technology and society, with expertise in global media, digital technology, and media history. To discover more about MCC, visit steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc.
About the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (@nyusteinhardt)
Located in the heart of Greenwich Village, NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development prepares students for careers in the arts, education, health, media, and psychology. Since its founding in 1890, the Steinhardt School's mission has been to expand human capacity through public service, global collaboration, research, scholarship, and practice. To learn more about NYU Steinhardt, visit steinhardt.nyu.edu.
About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The Guggenheim network that began in the 1970s when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, was joined by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, has since expanded to include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (opened 1997), and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (currently in development). Looking to the future, the Guggenheim Foundation continues to forge international collaborations that take contemporary art, architecture, and design beyond the walls of the museum. The foundation is also committed to fostering research, exhibitions, and collections in the field of global art through such programs as the Asian Art Initiative (founded in 2006), the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative (founded in 2012), and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative (founded in 2013). More information about the foundation can be found at guggenheim.org.
About the Asian Art Initiative at the Guggenheim
In 2006, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum became the first modern art museum in the West to hire a senior curator of Asian art, cementing its commitment to integrate the study, research, and presentation of Asian art into its exhibition, education, and acquisitions strategies. Since that time, the Guggenheim has developed a robust Asian Art Initiative that includes a diverse roster of exhibitions supported by award-winning scholarly catalogues, and an advisory council—all advancing the initiative’s central goal to promote a transnational understanding of art history with a focus on Asian art.