Description: Material matters in new Chinese art, which presents its subjects through the directness and immediacy of its material. This book applies theories by Osborne and Danto to new Chinese art to show how artists are working below the level of language to make each work of art prove that it is art.
Review Quotes:
""Before modernism there were important, but limited artistic contacts between China and the West. Now, however, art coming from China very often responds to the highly complex history of that country using visual thinking derived from contemporary Western art. Anyone interested in this new Chinese art will find much of value in Mary Wiseman's book, a deft synthesis which provides useful information about both Chinese and Western aesthetics, employing many instructive case studies. Relentlessly lucid, her far-reaching ambitious analysis provides an essential starting point for any art historian or philosopher who is interested in learning about contemporary art coming from China."" --David Carrier, author, Museum Skepticism: A History of the Display of Art in Public Galleries (2006)
"Mary Bittner Wiseman takes a comprehensive a approach to contemporary Chinese art, analyzing it historically, culturally, politically, and philosophically. Her interpretations are fresh and unexpected. A Grand Materialism will ignite discussion and elicit debate about the ongoing globalization and localization of the new art. The book gives us a new way to think about post-pandemic contemporary art around the world." --Wang Chunchen, Central Academy of Fine Arts