Anonymous Painting Group 无名画会
From ArtSpeak China (ASC) Wiki
The Anonymous Painting Group was an early group of contemporary Chinese artists noted for experimentation with a number of late-19th and early-20th-century Western styles including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Fauvism. Although their paintings do not appear particularly radical in their treatment of content or form, the very act of painting non-revolutionary subject matter in non-naturalistic styles, was not accepted by the establishment at the time.
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[edit] Who
Ma Kelu, Liu Shi, Shi Zhenyu (Founding Member), Shi Xixi, Tian Shuying, Wang Aihe, Wei Hai, Yang Yushu (Founding Member), Zhang Da'an (Founding Memeber), Zhao Wenliang (Founding Member), and Zheng Ziyan.
[edit] When
Active primarily from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, but some long-lived members still working into the 21st century
[edit] Where
During the Cultural Revolution, the Anonymous Painting Group worked largely in and around Beijing. Despite periodic surveillance, the group would meet to paint at picturtesque locations such as Fragrant Mountain and Zizhuyuan Park.
[edit] Name
In 1979, with help from Liu Xun of the Beijing Artists Association, the first officially approved Anonymous Painting Group exhibition was held in Beijing's Beihai Park. At this exhibition, the group also became known as the No Name Group. The specific circumstances surrounding the origins of both names remain obscure.
[edit] Intentions
The Anonymous Painting Group is considered the first underground group of artists to resist the creative control imposed by the government during the Cultural Revolution.
[edit] Art
Although the Anonymous Painting Group used a formal vocabulary associated with Western art movements, they assert that classification based on the form of their works is misleading. As painter Ma Kelu claims in reference to group co-founder Zhao Wenliang's style of painting, “He is not related to any theory, transformation, classical or modern. You are unable to give his work a simple explanation or to classify it as any traditional form. His work is purely personal, free, comfortable and self-sufficient.”
[edit] Exhibitions & Reception
The first exhibition of group members' work, 203 Big Yard, was held in secret at group founder Zhang Wei’s home in 1974. In 1979, after the end of the Cultural Revolution, works by group members were included in the Twelve Person Exhibition at the Palace of Infants in Shanghai and the New Spring Exhibition at Sun Yat-sen Park in Beijing. The first "No Name" Group retrospective exhibition was held in 2007 at the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai.
Although much remains to be known about the group's activities during the Cultural Revolution, the Anonymous Painting Group is recognized as a significant part of contemporary Chinese artistic and political history.
[edit] Commercial Status
The Anonymous Painting Group was founded on the belief that art should remain independent of political and commercial pressures. True to this belief, many of the paintings created by members during this era remain in the members' personal collections. Their historical role in contemporary Chinese art history has helped garner a significant price increase for works similar in style.
For individual artist auction results click here
[edit] References
Asia Society: "Never Forget Class Struggle"
Gao Minglu: "No Name Group Contemporary Recluses—the Bo Yi's and Shu Qi's of the Cultural Revolution"
in Art and China's Revolution by Melissa Chiu (New York: Asia Society, (2008)
