Exhibition traces evolution of contemporary art in China

In 1991, Chinese artist Xu Bing held his first exhibition in the United States at the University of Wisconsin with his iconic large-scale installation Book from the Sky and Ghosts Pounding on the Wall.

The former was made up by thousands of Chinese characters and the latter was prints created from bricks from the Great Wall. The exhibition won international attention for the artist.

Xu's show in the US sparked a spirited discussion in China on contemporary art, a concept introduced to China in the 1980s that many Chinese art critics thought was a kind of invasion, says Zheng Shengtian, an experienced curator who attended Xu's show.