Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art is pleased to announce the recipients of the Fifth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art. Two jurors who have an extensive history with contemporary Chinese art each were invited to make one autonomous recommendation: Julia F. Andrews, Distinguished University Professor of Art History at Ohio State University, who has long experience with writing about and curating exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art, selected Lesley Ma. Gao Shiming, an internationally renowned scholar, curator, and critic on contemporary Chinese art, selected Dong Bingfeng. Each award carries a value of $5,000 CAD. Past award recipients include Maya Kóvskaya and Sheng Wei, in 2010; Zhu Qi and Huang Zhuan, in 2011; Lu Peng and Yu-Ling Chou, in 2012; and Cui Cancan and Anthony Yung, in 2013.
The Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art are important to the mandate of Yishu, which recognizes a diversity of voices that are expressed through a variety of writing styles addressing the specific issues that are of interest to them. The Awards were established to encourage and recognize emerging writers who are making an outstanding contribution to understanding the history and current issues that surround the vast realm of contemporary Chinese art. There is no submission process and recipients are given no prior notice that they are being considered.
Julia F. Andrews notes:
“Lesley Ma’s interests include abstract paintings in postwar Taiwan and modern and contemporary art in the Pacific Rim region. Her engagements span the historical and the contemporary, the local and the international, and art forms that cross mediums and disciplines. Her work is revelatory in tracing what are significant roots for Taiwan’s contemporary art, as well as forgotten movements on the island that developed in parallel to the much better known work from Japan and the West during the same period. In her text on Chuang Che, she goes beyond to challenge simple binaries, East or West, modernity or tradition, to examine this artist’s richly textured career, pioneering a generation of Taiwan’s modernists. Well-framed historically in the context of the 1960s, the cross-disciplinary artistic scene that Lesley Ma describes also reverberates with concerns that remain at the core of contemporary East Asian art.”
Gao Shiming observes:
“As the mirror of representation has become broken in today’s context of art criticism, we can no longer reach its centre or fringes, but face the cracks inside the mirror—the inner frontiers of ideology. What is reflected in this fractured mirror is no longer any intact reality but fragments that overlap, intersect and contradict. In this condition, the subject is constantly being recomposed, tradition added, and reality waiting to be actualized. While the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ are fragmented, ‘we’ and ‘they’ are at all times drifting, incessantly displacing each other’s identities.”
“Situated in these complex circumstances, Dong Bingfeng’s writing becomes particularly meaningful. His personal writing and publishing experiences are inseparable. In the past ten years, he has worked relentlessly in editing and publishing to immensely enrich the theoretical resources concerning the contemporary Chinese art scene, constructing a comprehensive and adequate toolbox of discourses for art critics. His personal writings traverse the intersected zones of film, theory, art history, and art criticism. His publications contribute especially to the genealogical studies of films, videos, and documentaries within the gallery system. A scholarly writer, Dong Bingfeng has considerable respect for artists. He is also an attentive reader. As a critic who excels in critical thinking, he manifests sufficient vigilance and awareness of the realistic scenarios of contemporary art.”
The Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art are made possible by Stephanie Holmquist and Mark Allison, Li Lin and JNBY, Amelia Aihong Gao, Van Art Farm, and the Yishu Initiative of Contemporary Chinese Art Society.
Image: (left) Lesley Ma, (right) Dong Bingfeng.
2015 Yishu中国当代艺评奖发布
我们很荣幸地宣布“Yishu中国当代艺评奖”2015年的获奖名单。和往年一样，两位负有声望的国内外学者被邀请担任本届评选人：长期研究中国现当代艺术，并策划过许多重要展览的美国俄亥俄州立大学艺术史教授安雅兰（Julia M. Andrews）推选了马唯中（Lesley Ma）；国际知名学者、策展人和批评家、中国美术学院副院长高士明教授推选了董冰峰。每位获奖者将各获得5000加元奖金与奖状，其代表性论文将于2016年1月号的Yishu杂志上发表。
“Yishu中国当代艺评奖”自2010年起颁发。历年担任特邀评选人的有：高名潞、林似竹（Britta Erickson）、侯瀚如、凯伦（Karen Smith）、巫鸿、王嘉骥、杨天娜（Martina Köppel-Yang）和栗宪庭。以往的获奖人包括盛葳、迈涯（Maya Kovskaya）、黄专、朱其 、周郁龄、吕澎、翁子健和崔灿灿。
安雅兰指出：“马唯中的研究方向包括战后台湾抽象绘画和太平洋地区的现当代艺术，涵盖了传统与当代、本土与国际、以及跨媒介和领域的艺术形式，对追寻台湾当代艺术的独特源流，了解与同时期西方和日本艺术并行、但却不为人知的台湾艺术运动，有很大的启示性。在有关庄喆的论文中，她突破了简单化的东方与西方、现代与传统的二元论，对艺术家作为一代台湾现代主义先锋的丰富多彩的艺术生涯做了深入的研究分析。马唯中以1960年代的历史情境为框架所阐述的跨领域艺术现场回应了当代东亚艺术仍然关注的核心问题。”
高士明认为：“在今天的艺术批评语境中，表象之镜已经破裂，我们再也无法抵达镜子的中心或边缘，我们面对的是表象之镜内部的裂痕——那是意识形态的内部边疆。这面破裂的镜子中映照出的，不再是完整如一的现实，而是彼此交叠、穿插、矛盾着的碎片。在这一境况中，主体是被不断重组的，传统是被追加的，现实是有待实现的，自我和他者都是破碎的，‘我们’和‘他们’随时在漂移，并且不断互换着身份。“
他说：“在这一复杂境遇中，董冰峰的写作具有特殊的意义。他的个人写作与他的出版工作是分不开的。十年来，他不懈的编辑与出版工作极大地丰富了中国当代艺术界的理论资源，为艺术批评圈建构了一个齐全有效的话语工具箱。他的个人写作，则始终浪迹于电影、理论、艺术史与艺术批评的交叠地带。在他的著作中，他对美术馆机制中电影、录像、纪录片等‘影像’的系谱学研究尤其具有贡献。作为一个学究气的写作者，他对艺术家有足够的尊重，他是一位悉心的读者。作为一位具有反思精神的批评家，他对于当代艺术的现实处境表现出了足够的警醒和认识。”
“Yishu中国当代艺评奖”由《Yishu：Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art （典藏国际版）》倡议设立，为了表彰对认识理解中国当代艺术历史与现状做出卓越贡献的学者。评选的方法采取推荐制，体现了本刊的一贯宗旨：鼓励艺术批评领域中的多种声音，包括各自关注的不同问题和多样的写作风格，以促进对中国当代艺术有独到见解的严肃的艺术批评。
“Yishu中国当代艺评奖”首届颁奖仪式和研讨会于2010年9月在西安美术馆举行。最近两届颁奖与学术讨论会均在香港巴塞尔艺术博览会期间，与亚洲艺术文献库合作在香港会展中心举办。
“Yishu中国当代艺评奖”由加拿大和中国的公益团体与私人赞助。包括Stephanie Holmquist 和Mark Allison、 李琳、高爱红、Van Art Farm 和Yishu Initiative of Contemporary Chinese Art Society.
