Arts

Looking at the good, the bad and the ugly

By Yang Yingshi (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-01 08:21

Scanning art reviews in The New York Times with a cup of coffee on the city's subway is no longer part of my life. Back in Beijing, after several years of graduate school in the United States, I recently revived my habit of reading the morning newspaper in my office. And China Daily - with some art coverage - goes well with coffee or tea.

I first read China Daily when I was a high school student in Hunan province. Its artful page layouts and photos, quite unusual among serious mainstream Chinese newspapers, were striking.

It wasn't until I began to have the language proficiency as an English major in college that I really enjoyed reading the articles. An avid art lover, my most favorite articles were then artist profiles by Yi Shu, which I didn't realize was the pinyin version of Chinese for "art".

In 1994, when I joined China Daily, I finally met "art" in person, a writer named Yang Yi, and other art journalists such as Li Xing, Gong Qian and Zhu Linyong. I contributed articles to the arts pages occasionally and, from 2000 to 2003, became a full-time arts journalist and editor, before leaving for my master's and doctoral studies in arts education and arts administration at Harvard and Columbia universities.

It was through my experience as a reader and arts writer that I began to develop my vision of the contemporary Chinese art scene and eventually, my role as an educator/curator at the National Art Museum of China. There are many differences between the roles of an arts journalist and an art museum professional. But I believe one thing is in common: presenting art to the public.

Because of my work and interest in art, I also saw changes in art coverage of China Daily as a window to the Chinese art world in transition.

Following the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), the art scene in the 1980s was marked by unprecedented political and spiritual openness. China Daily has witnessed a most exciting time for artistic developments in modern Chinese history.

From the start, China Daily served as a bridge between Chinese and international cultures, especially with art as a most vivid and dynamic cultural expression. Arts coverage then focused more on Chinese or foreign artists with a special China link. In Chinese art, coverage focused more on traditional art forms such as ink painting, calligraphy and folk art.

The past two decades or so have seen the emergence of vibrant contemporary Chinese art, which have greatly changed the life of Chinese artists and their roles in social life. China Daily has published more and more in-depth reports and reviews of artists, exhibitions and trends. Art coverage has had increasingly broadened and multiple perspectives as well: social, economic, cultural, and, of course, journalistic.

The only thing I wish to see more in China Daily is serious criticism. Good newspapers always produce good critics. In China, I miss colleagues at The New York Times: Michael Kimmelman, Holland Cotter and Roberta Smith.

People flock to exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or Museum of Modern Art with their art reviews in hand.

Yang Yingshi is deputy director of the Public Education Department of the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page40)