Zocalo: Art in the New China

The Getty Center hosts a panel discussion to explore how artists are rendering their work to tell the history of past and present China.

Whether by the censor's pen or the demands of commercial development, China has long excelled at erasing its past. In the last decades of the 20th century, many of Beijing's traditional neighborhoods, courtyards, and shopping centers were bulldozed in favor of new commercial districts, gated communities, and tourist attractions. The Cultural Revolution demanded the elimination of "the four olds" - culture, customs, habits, and ideas - not only destroying existing works of art but requiring contemporary artists to adapt new genres like socialist realism. And what the West considers the most iconic photograph of modern China, the lone protestor standing before a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square, is unknown to most Chinese. But today, a new generation of Chinese artists is harking back to old forms - incorporating pre-Revolution imagery, centuries-old dynastic painting techniques, and allusions to the Mao era to comment on today's politics and culture. In conjunction with the Getty exhibition, "Photography from the New China," Zócalo invites a panel featuring Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society Museum, curator Shiming Gao, and New York- and Shanghai-based artist Wenda Gu to explore creativity, capitalism, and the conflict between past and present.

Moderated by Qingyun Ma, Dean, USC School of Architecture

Parking is free after 5:00pm.