Description:
Wang Guangyi, one of the stars of the new wave of Chinese art, has artistically addressed major philosophical trends in Western philosophy while drawing on Taoism, Marxism and Maoism. By bringing together a team of experts in the philosophy of art to discuss his work, The Philosophy and Art of Wang Guangyi presents the first philosophical exploration of Wang's art, his thought and his analysis of Chinese society.
From his use of words in images to his reference to the classics of Western painting, contributors set Wang's work against key questions in contemporary art. As well as answering what makes the language of pop art successful, they examine whether art and its history have come to an end, as Hegel posited, and if it is possible or even necessary to rework a new narrative for the history of contemporary art. The Philosophy and Art of Wang Guangyi marks an important contribution to understanding the background, work and ideas of a 21st-century political artist outside the West.Brief description: Erica Onnis is a PhD student in theoretical philosophy at the University of Turin, Italy (FINO Consortium), where, since 2015, she is a member of the Labont - Center for Ontology. Since 2017, she is seminar lecturer and teaching assistant in Theoretical Philosophy. Her research interests lie in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and Chinese language and philosophy.
Review Quotes: By focusing on Wang Guangyi, a trendsetter in contemporary Chinese art since the mid-1980s, this original volume presents a variety of angles to rethink many key concepts and visual strategies in contemporary art across the East-West divide. In so doing it provides an unusually detailed and sensitive analysis of an important artist as well as a possible model for transregional and interdisciplinary studies on global contemporary art.