 he practice of modern art came to a standstill with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In Shanghai, one of the earliest cities exposed to Western art in China, the arts brewed in secret until they reemerged two decades later, after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Artists survived the period by participating in unofficial exhibitions, many held illegally in private homes. After the Cultural Revolution, the art scene in Shanghai slowly gained momentum and pushed its way through the 1980s. By 1985, the activities of the new generation of artists had led to the birth of the New Wave Art Movement, ushering in contemporary art in Shanghai.
 The artists of the 1980s overcame the obstacles of the period simply by pursuing their own passions courageously. Avant-garde art projected humanistic ideals and for the first time in decades, Chinese people explored the notion of individuality.
The first nation-wide modern art show,“Twelve Painters’Works,”was organized early in 1979 at the Shanghai Children’s Palace of Huangpu District prior to the more famous Xingxing Art Exhibition. The art critic, Zhu Pu, wrote about the exhibition in Fine Arts Magazine saying, “Without examinations and assessments by any official authorities, the artists took sole responsibility for the viewpoints expressed in their works. The middle of the exhibition hall featured screens for hanging works designed in an X formation, there was also music playing. Visitors had never seen anything like it before.”
Not all exhibitions were fortunate enough to run as smoothly. The“Phase 1983 Painting Experimental Show”(later referred to as the "Ten Painters Show") opened at Fudan University in September of 1983 only to be shut down by university authorities. The exhibition featured abstract works made of non-traditional materials including stone and glass by a group of artists including Li Shan, Yu Xiaofu, Jianjun, Dai Hengyang, Wang Bangxiong, Leng Hong, Zhou Jiahua, Gao Jin, Zha Guojun and Fang Fang. The show’s closure was referred to in the government’s anti-ideological pollution campaign later that year and criticized repeatedly in the media. Exhibition closed as fast as they opened, official authorities closed many shows at the Affiliated Secondary School of Shanghai University.
 The knowledge-seeking atmosphere of the early 1980s influenced art exploration heavily at the time. Aspiration for social progress, artists began to pursue a free and intelligent art practice quite distinct from the challenging attitude of the middle and late 1980s. Artists explored new themes and individual tastes in representations, breaking away from the long-time Soviet convention of realistic painting made popular in Shanghai during the 1920s and 1930s.
The Group Show, “Six Painters’Modern Works,”opened at Fudan University in March of 1985. The show was organized and featured works by Yu Youhan and his students: Ding Yi, Feng Lianghong, Qin Yifeng, Wang Guqing and Ai Dewu. It was at this time that the notion of “modern painting” first came into focus. Most of their works combined western abstract painting with traditional Chinese notions; clearly influenced by the current social pursuit balancing both modern and traditional cultures.
That June, artists from Yunnan and Shanghai held a joint “New Image Painting Show” at the Shanghai Culture Center located in the Jing’An District featuring the works of Mao Xuhui, Zhang Long, Zhang Xiaogang, Pan Dehai, Hou Wenyi and Xu Kan. The exhibition toured to Nanjing and Kunming, making them influential in the 1985 New Wave Movement. The Shanghai Culture Center of the Xuhui District presented “Four Men’s Exhibition of Engraving Works” that next January showing woodcut works by Yang Hui, Gong Jianqing, Zou Shilong and Wang Xiaojun. Yan Li, who had showed his works at the Xingxing Art Exhibition opened a solo exhibition in Shanghai during the summer of 1985.
Art critics used the word "wild" in describing Shanghai art, referring mostly to the individual, free and bold style of painting which sometimes also alluded to the artist’s personality and behavior. Having no successful examples to follow, and having to stand up to pressures from all sides, artists had to be determined to take part in exhibitions during the 1980s. One could feel the apparent pressure and heaviness expressed through the works. Expecting to attain spiritual freedom as well as to inspire the whole society, artists resorted to the stirring powers of their works.
 Shows gradually gained social and official acceptance as the decade moved on. Shanghai welcomed more shows during 1986 including“Paintings Show I”of Li Shan, Jianjun, Kong Bai and three other painters, followed by Chen Zhen’s “Painting Show,” “Non-image Painting Show” of Wan Junyan and Zhu Changyan, and Wang Shacheng’s“Nine Day Painting Show.”Avant-garde art of this period explored Western modern art, philosophy, literature and traditional Chinese philosophy for its intellectual sources.
Wang Ziwei, Jin Ang, Chen Bing and Li Xuefeng’s exhibition “Black White Black” featured in May of 1989 at Shanghai’s Culture Center in Xuhui District challenged traditional painting and explored the modern art through a purer and more radical visual language. In June of that year, Tang Guangming, Yang Xu, Niu Honghua, Zhou Tiehai, Zhao Chuan and others organized another exhibition called “Creating Action” where they displayed the photo records of their action performance and works made from ready-made materials for one day until it was forced to shut down.
Two significant exhibitions in 1986 raised the avant-garde art exploration of the 1980s to a climax. The first was the “Concave Art Show” in November featuring the works by Yu Sen, Li Shan, Yu Youhan, Wang Ziwei, Jin Ang, Qin Yifeng, Ding Yi, Zhang Guoliang, Xiao Haichun, Wu Guoming, Wu Chenrong, Li Chen, Sun Jinhua, Hu Jiakang, Jiang Quan and Sun Jinbo. The exhibited works had no overall direction in style, but in an extremely idiosyncratic manner, they brought out artists’ confusion with the current situations and exposed them to ridicule and challenge.
The second exhibition was the “M Conceptual Art Performance Show”exhibited at the Second Workers’Culture Palace in the Hongkou District in December. Representing Yang Hui, Song Haidong, Li Zuming, Gong Jianqing, Shen Fan, Tang Guangming, Yang Xu, Zhou Tiehai, Wang Guqing, Weng Liping, Fu Yuehui, Qin Yifeng, Yang Dongbai, Hu Yuelong and Zhao Chuan, the show rendered the most dramatic scene of avant-garde art in Shanghai during the 1980s. Over a dozen artists displayed performance pieces. One of the most memorable was the self-crucified acting performance by Yang Xu, who was naked and beaten until he was bleeding from his back. The show drew about 200 visitors during its run.
These exhibitions may have signaled the beginning of contemporary art in Shanghai; avant-garde moved beyond painting and became more conceptual in following Western contemporary art. Chinese society slowly opened up to individualistic art experiments in turn allowing more exhibitions to run freely and receive positive comments from the mass media. Chinese artists had a burning desire to show the world what they could do, but their prospects were quickly extinguished by the ensuing anti-bourgeois liberation campaign.
The lack of available resources and channels combined with the difficulty of running exhibitions further spurred artists to find ways to open and join mainstream exhibitions. Fang Zengxian’s Shanghai Art Gallery was their answer. The Gallery admitted artists who devoted themselves to modern styles allowing them to exhibit their unorthodox works freely. Shanghai Art Gallery successively presented impressive shows including the “First Grand Show of Works by Shanghai Young Artists,”the“Inaugural Exhibition for Completion of Shanghai New Gallery Building” and the “Art of Today Exhibition.”
The “Last Supper – Second Concave Show” opened in December of 1988 at the Shanghai Art Gallery demonstrating works by Li Shan, Wang Jingguo, Sun Liang, Zhou Changjiang, Song Haidong, Xiao Xiaolan, Wu Liang, Li Xianting, Yu Sen, Yang Zhanye and Pei Jing. The show was a preview for its full-scale demonstration to be seen in Beijing’s “China’s Modern Art Exhibition.” The artists constructed a 33-meter long passageway made of bamboo and linen cloth and all eleven dressed in robes sat around a long table scattered with Coca-cola drinks and food. The exhibition was ordered to close down due to fire prevention. The show’s grand opening and closing had taken place in one day.
Though it may not be the most creative exhibition of its day, the “Last Supper” featured all the essential qualities featured in avant-garde art in Shanghai during the 1980s. It was committed to key propositions in philosophy, it advocated a religious spirit, it traced the origin of modernity back to western cultures, it embodied a social critical spirit and the belief in power of collective actions. It also projected the artists’increasingly mature ability to control the situation around them and their desire to replace the official, mainstream setups in the domination of the discourse. The “Last Supper” exhibition successfully concluded the decade’s contemporary art movement in Shanghai.
translated by Huzhu
Top Image：1988 Last Dinner
Image1：1983 Ten Artists Exhibiiton
Image2：Yu Youhan's work in 1980s
Image3：1986 Exhibition Poster
Image4：1986 Performance Art Exhibition
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