Tang Contemporary Art Beijing is delighted to present The History of Eternity: Forty Years of Mao Xuhui 1980-2021 on 10 July 2021, the largest-scale solo exhibition for the artist to date, across both of its Beijing spaces. This exhibition has been several years in the making, and it is his most comprehensive solo show since Mao Xuhui: Will was presented at Tang Contemporary Art Hong Kong in early 2020.
This retrospective was curated by Dai Zhuoqun, who chose more than 200 works in a range of media, including oil on canvas, paper, and wood, ink on paper, drawing, and mixed media on canvas from every period in Mao's artistic career. Based on Mao's content or style in different eras, the show is arranged into four sections: 'Life / Representation,' 'Power / Parents,' 'Will / Scissors,' and 'Mount Gui / Sketching.' The exhibition attempts to showcase Mao Xuhui's tireless creativity over the last forty years from as many perspectives as possible.
Mao Xuhui has left a distinct personal imprint on the art world at two key moments in early Chinese avant-garde art. The first moment was from 1985 to 1989; he founded the Southwestern Art Research Group focused on new figurative painting in Kunming. He also organised several editions of the New Figurative Painting Exhibition, which became an important part of the '85 New Wave, an avant-garde contemporary art movement in China. In 1986, Mao represented the New Figurative Painting Exhibition at the Zhuhai Conference, and in 1988, he attended the Huangshan Conference and submitted an article entitled Artistic Issues are Human Issues. The artistic ambitions of this period were constantly changing, and Mao had to find something meaningful in the chaos; in his paintings, he tended to depict his personal awakening and the intense vitality of southwestern China. In 1989, Mao Xuhui participated in China/Avant-Garde as a representative of 'life painting.' His work was subsequently shown in a series of new art exhibitions held around the world related to China's New Wave and avant-garde movements.
Press release courtesy Tang Contemporary Art.
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