Odyssey of Culture, 2015 Wenda Gu and His Art Chinese Contemporary Art Series

This book is the first case study on Wenda Gu that systematically investigates the cultural and artistic context of his life and works, examining selected images of his artwork spanning from the late 1970s to the early 21st century. It is the first monograph to provide a comprehensive and profound study of a Chinese contemporary artist. In the 1980s, the School of Hermeneutics attempted to launch a discursive revolution. Vanguard artists believed that the visual art revolution was an integral part of the critique of culture because it tended to subvert and rebuild the cultural tradition at a discursive level. This book, using a case study on Wenda Gu as representative of Chinese avant-garde, investigates the centrality of culture in art, providing readers with insights on the origin, rationale and methodology of Chinese contemporary art.

Chapter 1 Introduction.- Chapter 2 Genesis of the Issue of Culture: the Cultural Fever and Avant-Garde in the 1980s.- Chapter 2.1 Cultural Fever and the Hermeneutics School.- Chapter 2.2 The Natural Ally of the Hermeneutics School – China’s Avant-Garde in the 1980s.- Chapter 3 The Discovery of the Centrality of Culture in Art: Wenda Gu.- Chapter 3.1 Family and Education – Art Heritage.- Chapter 3.2 Initiative – the Critique of Culture.- Chapter 3.3 Development – Analysis of Culture.- Chapter 3.4 Reinforcement – Synthesis of Culture.- Chapter 4 Conclusion.- Bibliography.- Appendix A: Chronology of Wenda Gu.- Appendix B: Wenda Gu, “The Divine Comedy of Our Times”.- Supplement A: “Forest of Stone Steles” –Translation within and between Cultures (Nov.2005).- Supplement B: Interview with Wenda Gu (July 2007).- Afterword.

The author has worked as a critic of Chinese contemporary art for three decades, and has taught art theory and art history at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China, and Kenyon College, Ohio, USA, consecutively.