Chinese Apartment Art (simplified Chinese: 公寓艺术; traditional Chinese: 公寓藝術; pinyin: gōng yù yì shù) is the avant-garde art that was produced underground during the 1970s–1990s in China.[1] The literal meaning of apartment in Chinese is "government-owned residential complex" or "public house". Chinese artists created private work space within public residential complexes out of sight of authorities. The pieces tend to be smaller as to fit on the confines of the living spaces.Their government was communist, where they dictated to their people. They would control people's lives, as it can be reported in public media. The people were living under strict rule. Their government would maintain control over the people. The government would censor the public media that express negative views about the government. The artists, one of them being strict under the rule, because the government thinks they would express their opinion through their art. Their a few well-known artist that was involved avant-garde movement that occurred between the 1970s and 1990s in China. They would host their art piece in their private apartment to express what their life under communism.[2][3][4]
History
Origins
Apartment art, a term created by Gao Minglu[5], emerged as a result of the Anti-Spiritual pollution campaign in 1983, which aimed to suppress Western- influence liberal ideas among the Chinese population. Apartment artists often utilized everyday household items and domestic objects that were symbolic of the physical context in their homes, focusing mainly on the tangible and observable in their physical environment.[6] Apartment art “partly became a response to the suppressed arts ecology of China, and the artists changing relationship with their local context, transforming the social agency and cultural role of Chinese artists at the time.[7]
Apartment art in the 1990s became a self-critical response to the avant-garde movement itself, as artists began to recognize the detriment of the commercial art market upon the Chinese arts ecology.[7]
Phases
Source:[8]
According to an exhibition hosted by the University of Pittsburgh in 2016 entitled “Chinese Apartment Art: Primary Documents from Gao Minglu’s Archive, 1970s-1990s,” Chinese Apartment Art is separated into three different phases. These phases are separated by differing characteristics, display, and shaped by the ever-changing political landscapes.
Family Salon (Late 1970s/Early 1980s)
This phase of the movement was created as a result of artists rejecting Socialist Realism. It was characterized by small, Salon-style exhibitions. These were often held in safer, foreign apartments showing off Impressionist and abstract paintings. An influential artist during this phase is Zhu Jinshi.
Projects on Paper (1980s-90s)
This phase featured a rise in mail art with widespread distributions through low-budget publications and photocopies. This bypassed gallery restrictions to "curate" multi-city exhibitions. Influential artists during this phase included Wang Luyan, Geng Jianyi, and Wang Jin.
Household Art Practice & Display (1990s)
This phase was definitively split by the Tiananmen square massacre. After this event, contemporary art was deemed outlawed and many artists fled the country and continued to make art in their private homes using domestic materials exploring everyday life. This movement included artists such as Song Dong, Wang Youshen, and Zhu Jinshi.
Other important artists during this movement include Yin Xiuzhen, Qin Yufen, Lin Tianmiao, Wang Gongxin, and Shi Yong.
Examples
Amplification Site: A Cross-Echo in a Private Living Space:[9]
In 1995, Shi Yong created this art piece in his private apartment. He installed several speakers that amplify any input sounds from the surrounding environment. The speakers were fixated on plastic films which allowed them to scatter throughout the whole apartment, living room, bedroom and even the bathroom. With the installation of these speakers, it acts as an overt defiance to Shi’s privacy, encompassing the idea behind the work: how exposures of privacy could yield anxiety and fear.
Culture Noodle (1994):[10]
The process of this artwork is rather simple and straightforward. Song Dong shredded pages of Chinese books with a shredder, and allowed the processed scraps to accumulate on the floor and on everyday objects such as TVs. The finished slices of paper closely resembled a popular folk food noodle in China, resulting in the work's name "Culture Noodle". Making allusions to food with the work's title, Song might want to highlight the necessity of books and the literary symbolism for culture.
References
- ↑ 王友身：被扯开的“外交”和“公寓” | 凤凰艺术 ShanghART. December 5, 2021
- ↑ Jones, Kiana. "Chinese Apartment Art". pitt.libguides.com. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
- ↑ "What is "Apartment Art" ? - Reviews". Artintern.net. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
- ↑ "Apartment Art in China 1970s-1990s - Exhibitions". Artintern.net. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
- ↑ "Gao Minglu - Figures - CAFA ART INFO | Find Chinese Contemporary Art and News". www.cafa.com.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2024-08-10. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
- ↑ "Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign". HistoryMaps. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
- 1 2 "Chinese Apartment Artist's and Maximalist's political and cultural resistance against the International Art World in the 80's-90's — Sueann Chen 陈彦聿". Sueann Chen 陈彦聿. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
- ↑ Jones, Kiana. "LibGuides: Museum Studies Exhibition Seminar (HAA 1020) - Oakland Campus: Chinese Apartment Art". pitt.libguides.com. Archived from the original on 2017-10-02. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
- ↑ SHI 施勇, Yong (1995-01-01). "Amplification Site: A Cross Echo in a Private Living Space 扩⾳现场：一个私人空间的交叉回声". Zhou Yan Contemporary Chinese Art Archive 周彦当代中国艺术档案.
- ↑ SONG 宋冬, Dong (1994-01-01). "Culture Noodle 文化面条". Zhou Yan Contemporary Chinese Art Archive 周彦当代中国艺术档案.
