Approaching Autonomy: Post-Socialist Conceptualism in Chinese Art

By Yu-Chieh Li

This book explores works by key artists who shaped conceptualism in post-Mao China. Drawing from understudied archival materials and qualitative research, it analyzes artistic struggles for autonomy, re-evaluating Robert Rauschenberg's 1985 exhibition in Beijing and Chinese artists' exploration of appropriation, affect, dehumanization, and collective practice since the 1980s. A continuous development can be found in the politics and aesthetics of post-socialism, which has struggled to define its space for expression, from the 1980s until today.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9004537090
• ISBN13: 9789004537095
• Release Date: June 2025
• Publisher: Brill
• Length: 272 Pages