The Spirit of Individualism

“This timely, compelling, and extremely useful book adds considerably to our understanding of Chinese art immediately after the Cultural Revolution by linking the artistic development of Shanghai during the 1980s with the city’s vibrant artistic role within Asia during the 1930s and early '40s. …”

—David Elliott, Curator|Writer|Museum Director|Teacher, Oxford|Stockholm|Tokyo|Istanbul|Sydney|Kyiv|Moscow|Guangzhou|Berlin

“It fills a long-overlooked gap in the study of China’s Avant-Garde centered in Shanghai during the period, but also connected to the earlier and subsequent development from a new historicist perspective. …A must-read for understanding the evolution of Avant-Garde Art in China, but also of China in itself.”

—Qiu Xiaolong, Professor, Doctor, Author (of the prize-winning Inspector Chen series translated into twenty languages and sold over two million copies worldwide)

This book offers fresh perspectives and new insights into the avant-garde art in Shanghai in the 1980s that challenges the narrative in the current discourse on the appearance of contemporary art in China. It includes critical events in Shanghai, that will attract the serious attention of art professionals and collectors. Shanghai, with its semi-colonial, political, economic and cultural history, including the strong legacy of the early twentieth-century modernist art movement, has played a vital role in China’s modernisation and presents itself as a unique case in the evolution of contemporary art in China.

Lansheng Zhang is an art historian and academic, art curator, artist and designer. He has worked in these roles with universities, governments, international organisations, major art institutions in China, Australia, Japan and Europe. His main research interests are in modern and contemporary art and design, art histories and visual cultures in Asia especially in China. He was an Adjunct Professor at the RMIT University Melbourne, Associate Professor at the East China Normal University Shanghai, Senior Fellow at Lincoln University, UK, Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, and recently a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney.