This paper examines the connection between art and nationalism in Chinese culture and asserts that the recent market boom and price jump in Chinese fine art reflects a concerted yet conflicted effort by the Chinese government and Chinese society as a whole to reconcile with a problematic twentieth-century past. The paper first delves into the historical practice of utilizing art to construct political narratives though Ming-Qing dynasties before examining how antiquarianism was utilized by Mao Zedong himself and by the modern day Chines Communist Party.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2003. / "A thesis submitted in full completion of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Cultural Histories and Futures, University of Western Sydney" Includes bibliography.

Faire une recherche sur l'histoire de l'art contemporain chinois implique la formation de deux questionnements essentiels. Tout d'abord, il est possible d'émettre un doute quant à la pertinence de l'emploi du terme contemporain. L'interminable débat sur la notion de contemporanéité a laissé place au second questionnement, d'ordre géographique. Existe t-il un art contemporain chinois ? De Ma Yuan à Dong Qichang, la première grande partie de cette recherche s'est employée à brosser le portrait de l'inclinaison prise par l'art chinois. Il sera intéressant d'observer comment les artistes actuels se sont emparés de la culture antique chinoise et l'ont ressuscitée à travers le prisme de leur réalité contemporaine. Il convient d'opérer une scission dans le schéma chronologique, matérialisée par l'avènement de la République Populaire de Chine. L'aversion pour l'art du Parti Communiste associée à la volonté d'asservir la production artistique de manière utilitariste fut la source d'une esthétique et de codes formels inédits, directement empruntés au réalisme socialiste russe et à la propagande nazi. / The research on the history of the Chinese contemporary art implies two essential questions. First of all, we may question the use of the word "contemporary". The never-ending debate concerning contemporaneity has lead to the second question which concentrates on a more geographical point. Does a contemporary Chinese art really exist? From Ma Yuan to Dong Qichang, the first part of this research aims at tracing the evolution of Chinese art. It will be interesting to see how current artists seized the traditional Chinese culture and resurrected this art through the prism of their contemporary reality. It is necessary to link this ascension to the rising of the Popular Republic of China. The hatred of the Communist Party for art, associated to the will of producing a new utilitarian art, were the source of innovative aesthetics and formal codes directly influenced by the Russian socialist realism and the Nazi propaganda.

In this thesis, I explored the visual and textual connotations of the handscroll painting Poetic Feeling in a Thatched Pavilion attributed to the Chinese Yuan dynasty artist Wu Zhen, and discussed this piece of work in terms of its relation to the long history of Chinese literati painting.

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This dissertation explores the philosophical and aesthetic continuities and changes of the shanshui genre and the ongoing relevance of Chinese philosophy, in particular Daoism, within a subfield of modern and contemporary Chinese art. This dissertation has been created in dialogue with these traditions. Reflections on how this research has impacted my own art practise is intertwined with the historical and analytical discussion. This multi-threaded, multi-disciplinary dissertation has been written as a form of dialectical discourse which employs both analytical and personal writing. As such it combines elements of visual art-making as both artistic expression and research process; art historical research and analysis; and, ongoing self-reflections around both practices. In addition to the analysis of the art of a selection of contemporary Chinese artists, my art-based research led to the creation and discussion of a series of artworks, including the core painting series and exhibition titled, For a Moment, Silence in 2016. My research led me to the conclusion that shanshui is much more than a traditional visual form in Chinese art history for it offers a unique modality of thinking, perceiving and engaging. This, in turn, is based on a fundamental and dynamic perception of the interrelatedness of all things in the world, a perception which is embedded in a classical Chinese worldview. I demonstrate from various angles that by connecting the personal with the art historical, as well as with a philosophical and a pragmatic understanding of traditional Chinese philosophy, the experience of shanshui can be internalized through contemporary art practice as a method of reflective and experiential learning. / Graduate / 2022-11-07

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