In the late 1970s, China entered a new era marked by a profound historical turning point. The emancipation of thought, a renewed awareness of human experience, reflection on history, and a search for authenticity in everyday life helped restore individual subjectivity and reawaken the creative spirit in art. Artists of the older generation returned to painting, their artistic energies revitalized.

The decade from 1979 to 1989 was a formative period in the development of Chinese contemporary art. Movements and exhibitions such as Scar Art, the Stars Art Exhibition, Rural Realism, and the ‘85 New Wave formed part of the dynamic and rapidly evolving artistic landscape of the 1980s. A renewed focus on humanity and everyday life brought ethnic minority communities, rural regions, and China’s borderlands to the fore as important subjects. Meanwhile, the influence of Western modernism encouraged artists to experiment boldly with visual language and artistic concepts. The China/Avant-Garde Exhibition of 1989 marked the close of a distinct phase in this transformative decade.

Bringing together representative works from this period, the exhibition traces the artistic trajectories that shaped this decade. It is organized into three sections. The first, “Awakening and Experimentation,” begins with individual artistic practices and independent exhibitions around 1979, proceeds through the Stars Art Exhibition, and explores the realist painting of the 1980s, with its focus on rural life, China’s borderlands, and everyday experience. It also examines the shift toward psychological expression and symbolism that emerged in painting in the mid-to-late 1980s. The second section, “New Waves and Pluralism,” brings together experimental practices by art groups and individual artists across China during the 1980s, alongside explorations by Shanghai-based artists working outside these collectives. It also highlights the increasingly individualized and diverse approaches to artistic expression that emerged in the mid-to-late 1980s, as well as the continuation of the realist tradition within academic art institutions. The third section, “Echoes of Modernity,” presents works by senior artists whose artistic ideals had taken shape before 1949 and who re-entered public view in the 1980s through the creative work of their later years.

Artistic production during this period reached an unprecedented level of vitality. Formal experimentation and conceptual exploration unfolded in tandem, ushering in a new chapter in Chinese art. This exhibition offers one perspective on this pivotal moment in history while opening up further avenues for research. Reflecting the social and cultural conditions of the 1980s, these works also helped shape artistic practice in the 1990s, making them an important body of work for documentation and continued study.

Section I: Awakening and Exploration

This section comprises three parts: “Breaking the Ice,” “The Stars Art Exhibition,” and “The Turn to Rural Life.”

“Breaking the Ice” brings together representative works by several artists active around 1979, some of whom participated in exhibitions such as the “Twelve-Men Painting Exhibition” in Shanghai and the “New Spring Painting Exhibition” in Beijing. Against the backdrop of the call to “emancipate the mind and seek truth from facts” and the launch of reform and opening up, Chinese art entered a new phase of development, with new approaches to artistic practice beginning to emerge. Some artists turned to personal experience to express a growing sense of individual consciousness and reflect on history, while their works also demonstrated an increasing awareness of form.

In 1979, the first Stars Art Exhibition opened briefly on the iron railings east of the National Art Museum of China before being shut down. It subsequently resumed at Painted Boat Studio in Beijing’s Beihai Park. In 1980, the second “Stars Art Exhibition” was held at the museum, and the Stars Art Society was founded that same year. This part presents works by key participating artists. Diverse in style, these works were deeply influenced by Western modern art and also drew inspiration from existentialist philosophy and modern poetry.

“The Turn to Rural Life” explores the realist painting of the 1980s, which took rural life, China’s borderlands, and everyday experience as its subjects, as well as the shifts that emerged within this trend in the mid-to-late 1980s. Earlier works frequently depicted the daily lives of farmers, herders, boatmen, and ethnic minority communities. By the mid-to-late 1980s, however, changes in spatial composition, figures’ gestures, and the use of colour began to distinguish these works from the earlier mode of rural realism.

Section II: New Waves and Pluralism

This section comprises four parts: “New Wave Art Groups,” “Shanghai’s Non-Group,” “Diverse Artistic Expressions,” and “Academies and Realism.”

“New Wave Art Groups” presents the artistic collectives and experimental practices that emerged across China around 1985. It features representative works by groups and initiatives such as the Northern Art Group, the Pond Society, the Southwest Art Research Group, Shenzhen Zero Exhibition, and the November Art Exhibition, as well as artists who participated in this broader movement independently. The emergence of these groups in rapid succession marked one of the most intense periods of artistic activity in the 1980s.

“Shanghai’s Non-Group” focuses on Shanghai artists’ formal explorations during the 1980s. Working primarily with elements such as colour, brushwork, and composition, these artists engaged with questions intrinsic to painting itself. Their practices were largely individual investigations into form. Although they were not united by a common organization, their work collectively continued Shanghai’s tradition of modernist formal experimentation.

“Diverse Artistic Expressions” presents artists who developed highly individual approaches to their practice, often drawing on personal experience and inner life. Their subjects ranged from urban life and psychological portraiture to symbolic scenes. Their visual languages encompassed a variety of approaches, including realism, expressionism, and symbolism, with an emphasis on individual perspectives and introspective expression.

“Academies and Realism” explores the continuation of the realist tradition within academic art institutions. Most of the artists featured in this part taught at art academies, where they continued to develop realist approaches through portraiture, the nude, and works addressing broader social and historical themes.

Together, these four parts reveal the diverse artistic paths that emerged during this period. Collective and individual practices, developments in Shanghai and elsewhere in China, and explorations both within and beyond academic institutions intersected to form the multifaceted landscape of art in this decade.

Section III: Echoes of Modernity

This section presents artists whose artistic ideals had taken shape before 1949 and who returned to public attention in the 1980s through works created in their later years. Most had begun exploring and practicing modernist artistic languages in the first half of the twentieth century. After 1949, modernist formal experimentation was largely interrupted. Many turned to teaching, while others continued their work through printmaking, watercolour, or works on thematic subjects. In the 1980s, some resumed artistic explorations that had previously been suspended, using their late works to reconnect with interrupted lines of inquiry. The section also includes several artists who carried these legacies forward. Some had studied in France or Japan; others were trained by Xu Beihong or Lin Fengmian. Working across a range of media, including printmaking, watercolour, and oil painting, they brought the artistic ideals and pedagogical experience of the first half of the twentieth century into the art education system of the People’s Republic of China.