Art Reboot

104 the world to a far greater extent, it broadened their perceptual horizons; and by reducing (although not entirely removing) constraints on art, it allowed a more permissive agenda. Chinese artists were encouraged to paint in western media, inspired to a large extent by the truly revolutionary art of the West. Respond- ing to the new-found freedoms and to the anomalous period of ‘Art for the People’, they pursued a somewhat illusionary revolution of their own, resulting in the belief among artists and audience that it was the Chinese equivalent of what had been achieved in the West. This raises the question of what, in a rapidly globalising cul- ture, and from a transcultural perspective, qualifies as Chinese art. Is this post-Deng movement Chinese art in the same way as the ink-painting tradition? Or is it better described as western art being produced by ethnic Chinese artists? The contradictions involved are revealed by such artists as Zao Wou-ki (1920–2013). He lived in Paris and painted in west- ern media for most of his life, primarily in a western, abstract- expressionist mode. His works sit more comfortably in that American movement than in the Chinese tradition of art. The other side of the coin is represented by a small number of westerners who are perhaps better classed as ‘Chinese’ artists, despite their ethnicity, including myself. Although born in Wim- bledon, my artistic background is Chinese art and culture. When I took up painting, my teachers and main influences were the expatriate artists of the latter part of the last century for whom I acted as agent: Lui Shoukuan, Fang Zhaoling, C. C. Wang, Li Huayi, Liu Kuo-sung, Zeng Youhe, He Huai-shuo, Chen Chi-