As an original founder of the avant-garde art Stars in 1979 now actively involved in the development of the 798 Art District in Beijing, Huang Rui is one of the leading figures of the Chinese contemporary art scene. He is a highly socially engaged artist who incorporates numerous and complex political and historical references into his works. Decidedly conceptual works like \u201cChairman Mao 10,000 RMB\u201d or \u201cChai-na\/China,\u201d for instance, reflects the paradoxes posed by the ideological collision between socialism and capitalism up to the present day in contemporary China. <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Huang Rui\u2019s body of work is intrinsically tied to memory, yet \u00admanages to avoid the usual memory trap of bitterness and nostalgia. Most \u00adimportantly perhaps, he also successfully keeps a sharp \u00adpolitical stance without falling into cynicism. Irony on cultural stage was one of the most important phenomena in China of 1990s, as illustrated by the \u00adcommercial success of \u201cpolitical pop,\u201d \u201ccynical realism\u201d and the like. Although \u00adundoubtedly refreshing in a Chinese context, the post-modern game of artsy quoting to which numerous contemporary artists have committed themselves in the recent years is certainly not as subversive as one often tends to believe. In this regard, the Chinese political situation, and Huang Rui\u2019s work in particular, offers a great opportunity to reconsider the relation between art production and the power structures in which it is involved. In the end, is irony not the cardinal virtue of existential \u00adliberalism, but the nervous tic of those too timid to hold true convictions? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the Stars<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Contemporary Chinese art is still largely identified in the West with the work of one generation of artists\u2014those who launched the new art scene in the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. This \u201cpolitical pop\u201d is still widely considered as the defining style of contemporary Chinese art, and \u00adsynonymous with the avant-garde. Huang Rui\u2019s artistic itinerary \u00adcontrasts sharply with the advent of political pop and commercial culture in China. Political pop bears witness to the death of utopianism and thus provides us with crucial insights into China\u2019s post-Tiananmen cynical and apathetic mindset. On the contrary, Huang Rui\u2019s artistic background is intimately related to the birth of avant-garde art in China in 1979 and the growth of the democratic movement through the 1980s. The \u00adgenealogy of the avant-garde and the democratic movement thus gives us an \u00adinteresting look from the inside at what would later culminate into the events of 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Huang Rui (b.1952) worked as a farmer in Inner Mongolia from 1968 to 1975 and then in a leather factory in Beijing until 1979. In 1978 he \u00adpublished the most important post-Cultural Revolution magazine, Jian Tian<\/em> (Today). But what really marks the entrance of Huang Rui on the avant-garde scene is his participation with the first group of \u201c\u00adnonconformist\u201d Chinese artists, Xing-Xing<\/em> (The Stars). The group was formed by different artists who met thanks to the Beijing Spring (1979-80), a period when emerged the Democracy Movement, an elite youth group that pursued ideals of spiritual freedom and intellectual independence. \u201cWe chose the name Stars,\u201d Wang Keping recalls, \u201cbecause at that time we were the only lights shining in an endless night and also because stars, seen from afar, seem so small, yet can prove to be huge planets.\u201d According to Ma Desheng, another member of the group, \u201cEvery artist is a star. Even great artists are stars from the cosmic point of view. We called our group \u2018The Stars\u2019 in order to emphasize our individuality. This was directed at the drab uniformity of the Cultural Revolution.\u201d The Stars became famous in 1979 by hanging their politically \u201cincorrect\u201d paintings and sculptures on the railings outside the National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing. This act of defiance, the first unauthorized exhibition of Chinese art since 1949, set the stage for an era of liberation for future artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Stars continued to face harsh official criticism and in 1983, due to political pressure, the group disbanded voluntarily and the \u00admajority of members left China. Huang Rui moved to Japan in 1984, where he \u00adbroadened his scope from painting to photography, installation and \u00adperformance art. He will not participate in an exhibition in China until 1992. <\/p>\n\n\n\n