Chinese Australian
Chinese Australians () are Australians of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Chinese diaspora, and are the largest Asian Australian community. Per capita, Australia has more people of Chines ...
artist. His work has been exhibited and collected in Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, US, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and China, including Musée de Picardie in France, Brussels Art Festival, the Art Gallery Of New South Wales, the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA)Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), (2009) The China Project, Three Decades the Contemporary Chinese Collection: Guo Jian, http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/past/recently_archived/the_china_project/three_decades_the_contemporary_chinese_collection/guo_jian_the_day_before_i_went_away_2008 Brisbane, Australia and the National Gallery of Australia (NGA).
He has been featured in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'', the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC),Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) Radio National (18 August 2011)http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/artist-guo-jian/2931386 by Phillip Adams, Retrieved 14 February 2014 '' Artist Profile'' magazine and on the cover of ''
The Wall Street Journal Asia
''The Wall Street Journal Asia'', a version of ''The Wall Street Journal'', was a newspaper that provided news and analysis of global business developments for an Asian audience. Formerly known as ''The Asian Wall Street Journal'', it was founde ...
contemporary
Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...
Chinese artists whose work is characterised as
Cynical Realism Cynical realism () is a contemporary movement in Chinese art, especially in the form of painting, that began in the 1990s. Beginning in Beijing, it has become one of the most popular Chinese contemporary art movements in mainland China. It arose thr ...
, which began in the 1990s in Beijing. Born a year after the Great Leap Forward, his art is heavily influenced by the last fifty years of political upheaval and violence in China, a period that included the
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
Tiananmen Square massacre
The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourt ...
in 1989.
At age seventeen, he enlisted in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during a recruitment drive to support the Sino-Vietnamese war, initiated by the country’s then leader
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. Aft ...
.
A central theme to Guo Jian’s art derives from his observations of the application of
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loa ...
and the arts to both motivate soldiers and sway public opinion. His perspective comes from his experiences as a propaganda poster painter in the PLA and propaganda officer in a transport company, then later from the outside looking back in as a student demonstrator during the Tiananmen Square protests in the spring of 1989.
His art also explores common themes and approaches in both Chinese propaganda and Western propaganda.
Art and influences
Stylistically, Guo Jian’s work falls within the
Cynical Realism Cynical realism () is a contemporary movement in Chinese art, especially in the form of painting, that began in the 1990s. Beginning in Beijing, it has become one of the most popular Chinese contemporary art movements in mainland China. It arose thr ...
grouping that has been attached to many contemporary Chinese artists who draw from their experiences over the last four decades in China. Their work is broadly a response to the dominant government driven form of propaganda-laden art known as
Socialist Realism
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
. While studying art at
Minzu University of China
Minzu University of China (MUC, ) is a national public university in Haidian District, Beijing, China designated for ethnic minorities in China.
MUC was selected as one of national key universities to directly receive funding from Double Firs ...
the ''85 New Wave Movement'' emerged, which also had a profound impact on his work.
Guo Jian’s art focuses on the use of the female
celebrity
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...
as a model patriot, a tool to motivate, influence, manipulate and ultimately serve as Ulyssean Siren. His work looks at the commonalities between the purity of the Chinese army’s Entertainment Soldier (文艺兵
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...
: wényìbīng or文工团
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...
: wéngōngtuán) performers and their Western counterparts. In the book STUDIO, Australian Painters on the Nature of Creativity, author John McDonald noted:
“A poster of two girls in army uniforms posed in front of the Great Wall shows how little Guo Jian actually makes up. His paintings may seem improbable but they are near reflections of Madam Mao’s Model Revolutionary Operas, and the over-the-top style of army propaganda. The message, to boys from the provinces like Guo Jian, was that beautiful girls love a man in uniform. Under capitalism or communism, sex sells.”
He highlights the implied innocence and the underlying
eroticism
Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, ...
of women used to manipulate and motivate men in uniform and in society as a whole. He delves into the
sexualisation
Sexualization (or sexualisation) is to make something sexual in character or quality or to become aware of sexuality, especially in relation to men and women. Sexualization is linked to sexual objectification. According to the American Psychologi ...
of propaganda,
heroism
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''hero ...
, patriotism and
persuasion
Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for Social influence, influence. Persuasion can influence a person's Belief, beliefs, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, Intention, intentions, Motivation, motivations, or Behavior, behaviours.
...
. What first appears as humour is a lament at the use of sex to seduce men to war. Guo’s continual references in his paintings to his time in the P.L.A. derive from the traumatic nature of the experience. Gou recalls:
‘I used to have nightmares all the time... Then in the library, I was looking at some pictures of China during the Cultural Revolution and I realized what was triggering these nightmares. Since coming to Australia ten years ago, I’d pushed memories of my years in the Chinese army, and of Tiananmen, out of my mind. But seeing these images triggered memories, and once I stated to use them in my paintings, I stopped having bad dreams.’” Miami University Libraries (2007), Breakout : Chinese Art Outside China, p.191, by Melissa Chiu, , Retrieved 14 February 2014
Biography
Early life
Guo Jian 郭健 was born in 1962, in Duyun 都匀市 the capital of
Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture
Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (; Buyei: ''Qianfnanf Buxqyaix Buxyeeuz ziqziqzouy''; Hmu: ''Qeef Naif Dol Yat Dol Hmub Zid Zid Zeb'') is an autonomous prefecture of Guizhou province, People's Republic of China, bordering Guangxi ...
Guizhou province
Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...
Southwest China
Southwest China () is a region in the south of the People's Republic of China.
Geography
Southwest China is a rugged and mountainous region, transitioning between the Tibetan Plateau to the west and the Chinese coastal hills (东南丘陵) and ...
Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...
,
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...
and
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of th ...
provinces. At 176,000 km2 (68,000 sq. ml) Guizhou is approximately the size
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...
or two thirds the size of the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. One of China's most ethnically diverse provinces; minority groups make up almost 40% of Guizhou’s population of 35 million people. Guo Jian’s family is from the Buyei 布依族 ethnic minority group.
Growing up during the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated go ...
(1966–1976) had a significant impact on Guo Jian’s generation. This was a period of China’s history characterized as the “Lost Decade” when the country was victim to the internal political power struggles between
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...
and his more moderate opponents. The populace were subjected to a perpetual climate of intense and relentless political indoctrination,
struggle sessions
Denunciation rallies, also called struggle sessions, were violent public spectacles in Maoist China where people accused of being "class enemies" were publicly humiliated, accused, beaten and tortured by people with whom they were close. Usually ...
“The depiction of soldiers has personal and political symbolism for Guo; not only was he a People’s Liberation Army soldier, but, as he has said:
‘My grandmother told me that the People’s Liberation Army had executed my grandfather.... I was shocked.... My father was a soldier. He had to denounce his own father, knowing he’d be killed too if he tried to defend him. And then in 1989, there I was, a former soldier, nearly killed by the P.L.A. myself on Tiananmen Square”
During the 60s and 70s, as most people in China did not have access to radio information, news and government propaganda were disseminated by village big character posters loudspeakers and
political posters
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studie ...
. Emerging from this period as a young man, Guo Jian joined the PLA to escape from his country town, find his independence, and serve his country. Already an aspiring artist, he hoped to join the PLA and study at one of the army’s art colleges.
Military Experience (1979-82)
In 1978, Guo Jian was approached by the
Minzu University of China
Minzu University of China (MUC, ) is a national public university in Haidian District, Beijing, China designated for ethnic minorities in China.
MUC was selected as one of national key universities to directly receive funding from Double Firs ...
, the national level university designated for
ethnic minorities
The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...
, but was told to wait one more year to enrol in the art department. Shortly after, PLA recruiters came to Guo Jian’s town and told him he could enter the army’s art college if he enlisted.
Guo Jian joined the PLA in 1979. One month after enlisting, he was informed that the army’s art college entry policies had changed and he could no longer automatically enter the college. As part of Deng Xiaoping’s reform policies, soldiers now had to undertake a formal entrance application process to enter military college. Guo Jian was initially assigned to the Telegraph Corps, 41st Division, 14th Corps, Yunnan Direction (the West Front) commanded by the Front Headquarter of
Kunming Military Region The Kunming Military Region was a military region of the People's Liberation Army, established in December 1954 or 1955 and disestablished during the 1980s. It was incorporated within the Chengdu Military Region.
In the 1954 reorganization that e ...
in Kaiyuan 开远city. He was also given responsibility overseeing the armoury, and was promoted to squad leader.
His artistic interests and talents were recognised and he was assigned to a squad of “Entertainment Soldiers” as a propaganda poster artist. During this time, (and even to the present day ) the military took visual arts, theatre and performing arts as important tools for political indoctrination, propaganda, to promote and communicate the communist party’s ideology as well as boost morale.
In 1982 Guo Jian resigned from the army and returned to his home town and worked as a propaganda officer in a local transportation company. For a period he also worked as a long-haul truck driver.
University and after (1985-92)
In 1985 Guo Jian was one of just three students accepted into Minzu University of China art department in Beijing, out of 6000 applicants who sat the entrance exam from his province alone. He initially studied traditional
Chinese painting
Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as ''guó huà'' (), meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western style ...
ink wash painting
Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà; ja, 水墨画, translit=suiboku-ga or ja, 墨絵, translit=sumi-e; ko, 수묵화, translit=sumukhwa) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses black ink, such as tha ...
focussing on
figurative art
Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real object sources and so is, by definition, representational. The term is often in contrast to abstract ...
and eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese painting and literature.Miami University Libraries (2007), Breakout : Chinese Art Outside China, by Melissa Chiu, , Retrieved 14 February 2014
The same year, China began to open up to the world, and with it China’s “85 New Wave Movement” of modern art began. For the first time new opportunities arose to see and study modern foreign art trends, as well as foreign political theories and philosophies. The American artist,
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
held the first officially sanctioned American art show in China in fifty years, held at Beijing’s
National Art Museum of China
The National Art Museum of China (NAMOC, ) is located at 1 Wusi Ave, Dongcheng District, Beijing, People's Republic of China. It is one of the largest art museums in China, and is funded by the Ministry of Culture. The construction of the muse ...
. Rauschenberg's installation works inspired many young artists at the time.
In April 1989 the liberal ex-communist party leader
Hu Yaobang
Hu Yaobang (; 20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a high-ranking official of the China, People's Republic of China. He held the top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1987, first as Chairman of the Chinese Communist P ...
died. Initially a small group of students began to commemorate his death and called for his legacy to be reassessed. Over the next few months the protesters numbers grew.
Like many students at the time, Guo Jian took part in the student protests and hunger strikes. Facing the soldiers together with the other students, he saw himself on both sides of the divide, both as a student and as the soldier. Guo Jian survived and graduated from university in July 1989, but his participation in the protest movement meant he was banned from being given employment through the formal job placement system for graduates at that time.
Guo Jian was part of the initial group of artists who moved to the outskirts of Beijing to Yuanmingyuan (the site of The
Old Summer Palace
The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan () or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens (), and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. ...
ruins) and formed the Yuanmingyuan artists’ community. The artists’ move was motivated by a desire to get away from Beijing’s post 1989 restrictive environment, while being close to what was at that time a still liberal Beijing University campus. In Yuanmingyuan Guo Jian began his professional painting career.
Leaving China (1992)
Following the Tiananmen protests and subsequent crackdown of 1989, the art sector and the overall social and political environment in Beijing and across China, remained restrictive, and conservative. As a result of pressure from the authorities, Guo Jian decided to leave China. In 1992 he immigrated to Australia. After arriving in Sydney, Guo Jian took up labouring jobs to finance himself and painted at night. His artwork gained the attention of curators and critics and his reputation grew.
In 2006, one of Australia’s leading portrait artists, Chinese Australian Shen Jiawei, included a portrait of Guo Jian entitled ‘Guo Jian and Elly’1998, in a group exhibition at the Australian Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
Back To China (2005)
Guo Jian returned to China in 2005 to explore production techniques options for developing his sculpture ‘One World One Dream’ (aka “Dirty Mind”). He resided in Songzhuang art colony East of Beijing.
In 2014 Guo Jian was interviewed on the Australian TV series "Two Men In China" about his art and his sculpture of Tianianmen Square.
Subsequently, in June, 2014 Guo Jian was interviewed by Tom Mitchell, Beijing correspondent for the Financial Times newspaper. As a result of that interview, a full page story was published in the weekend edition's "Lunch with the FT" section of the Financial Times immediately prior to the June 4th anniversary. The day after the offending article in the globally distributed newspaper hit newsstands, Guo Jian was arrested by Chinese authorities at his studio and detained for several weeks. As news of his arrest and detainment generated international news coverage Guo Jian was eventually deported to Australia for "visa issues".
Analysis and themes
The subjects and themes in Guo Jian’s work largely revolve around the relationship between entertainment and violence, aggression and lust, glamour and vice, corruption and destruction.
In her book, “Breakout - Chinese Art Outside China”,Melissa Chiu, a leading authority on Asian contemporary art, highlighted some of the prominent themes in Gou Jian’s work and their cultural and political significance:
Excitement series
“Guo’s paintings executed in Australia between 1995 and 1997 explore the sideshow theater as a site of latent violence. The main characters are soldiers being entertained by circus performers such as acrobats, knife-throwers and fire-eaters. ''Excitement Sideshow – Qi Gong (1995)'' is a good example of the cacophony of activity depicted in this series. P.L.A. soldiers, dressed in full uniform, including soft hats, are seated on both sides of the painting, providing a framing device for the performance: a woman lies on her back with her face grimacing at them while a man poised to cut her in half with a chopping knife stands by her side. This chaotic scene has many contrasts. The tension created by the performance involving knives, for example, is offset by the soldiers’ casual behavior of passing a cigarette between them during the performance.... The different layers in these paintings are metaphors for the social stratification of Chinese society, for example, between peasants, soldiers and performers.” (Chiu, 2007, P 192)
“In addition to the repetition of figures, Guo’s paintings are also redolent of figures of threat and danger. The atmosphere is always crowded and claustrophobic, creating a sense of expectation that something bad is about to happen. It derives partly from Guo’s use of the P.L.A. soldiers, which we associate with war and violence, and partly from the strong intimation of debauchery and sexual deviancy.” (Chiu, 2007, P 194)
“Guo’s paintings from 1998 to 1999 are much more ambitious in scale and content. They include images of soldiers and generals from the P.L.A., again, but this time in front of various recognizable Chinese scenes. ''Excitement: Great Landscape No. I (1998)'', for example, is dense with nearly twenty different figures of soldiers, generals, women (some naked and some wearing underwear) and men in everyday clothes populating a landscape of mountains and a bathing pool. If we focus on the right hand side of the painting alone, we see a woman in red underwear eating chocolate ice cream, a soldier on a rocking horse (painted black and white), a woman bathing naked in the pool with her breasts exposed the water, and a man in green shorts poised to dive off a mountain peak into the water. These figures don’t engage with one another at all, and their scale in the landscape is not pictorially correct, at least according to the principles of linear perspective, since some are oversized while others appear miniaturized by comparison. The layering of imagery is reminiscent of collage techniques, with the foreground figures sitting uneasily against the background landscape. This is intentional, used by the artist to convey the utter artificiality of the scene - a world controlled by corrupt and debauched P.L.A., officers and Party officials. By showing the army soldiers without their uniforms, Gou further disrupts the authority invested in them.” (Chiu, 2007, P 194)
“''Guo’s Excitement: Great Tiananmen (1998)'' from the same series is an even more potent caricature of the P.L.A., portraying soldiers and generals as immoral and ineffectual. Against the backdrop of the gate of Tiananmen, Guo fills the painting with a mass of figures. To the right hand side, groups of soldiers congregate together with the cigarettes in their hands, as if posing for a photograph, a common site at Tiananmen Square. Their image is painted in black and white, like an old photograph, perhaps a reference to the past. The seeming innocence of these young soldiers is contrasted against the violent acts of other soldiers around them. In the upper right-side corner, of example, three soldiers hold a man’s arms and neck, restraining him so that he can’t move, while in the center of the work another soldier pins a naked man to the ground. A black official car with Deng Xiaoping standing up and through the sunroof runs over a naked man. Although the men in this painting are mostly soldiers, the women are shown to be the temptresses who are either naked or wearing red lace underwear and remnants of army uniforms, cavorting recklessly with the soldiers. A fighter plane flies low across the Square amid the small air explosions that resemble anti-aircraft fire. ''Gou’s Excitement: Great Tiananmen'' is a strange assemblage of erotic and violent acts, united only by the themes of disorder and conflict. This painting is a statement on the decay and corruption of the P.L.A., made all the more pointed by the inclusion of poppy flowers in the foreground – a reference to the drug industry in China.(Chiu, 2007, P 194)
The Day Before I Went Away series
“One of the few respites from the cycle of propaganda and exercise was the occasional visit of singers and dancers brought in to perform for troops before they headed to war – a heightened experience for these groups of agitated, isolated young men. In the series of satirical paintings “The Day before I went Away” (2008), Guo Jian offers impressions of how young woman were positioned by the army in these covertly erotic performances to manipulate the soldiers to the point of sexual hysteria and blood lust.”
The PLA’s Entertainment Soldiers, also known ‘Military Performing Troupes’, ‘Song and Dance Troupes’ or ‘Military Art Troupes’ were initially recognised by Mao Zedong as an important element of ‘art as a form of media’ which was one of the most effective forms of propaganda. For Mao “revolution was art; art was revolution”, and art as a form of mass media was possibly one of the most effective and long lasting impressions that could be left on a people, and was left on the Chinese people.
From the earliest days of China’s civil war in the 1930s through to current times, these performance troupes have served to romanticize ideals of the communist party’s struggle. As of 2013 Chinese government employed 10,000 military troupe performers in thirty PLA troupe groups.
Among the most famous and important entertainment soldiers are;
Song Zuying
Song Zuying (; born August 13, 1966) is a Chinese classical/folk singer.
Early life
Song was born in Guzhang County, part of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan. She is of Miao ethnicity, and studied at the Department of Music ...
(宋祖英) is known as "mother of communist China”. In 1991, she joined the PLA Naval Song and Dance Troupe as a national first-class singer. As of 2009, she was a non-combatant
rear admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star " admiral" rank. It is often rega ...
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pre ...
, the
General Secretary of Communist Party of China
The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party () is the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has been the paramount leader o ...
from 1989 to 2002;
Peng Liyuan
Peng Liyuan (; born 20 November 1962) is a Chinese soprano and contemporary folk singer and the spouse of Xi Jinping, current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the People's Republic of China. Peng gained popular ...
(彭麗媛) born 1962, is a Chinese contemporary folk singer and performing artist. She joined the PLA in 1980 when she was 18 and began as an ordinary soldier, but with her vocal talent later performed during frontline tours to boost troop morale during the Sino-Vietnamese border conflicts. She is the wife of China’s current
paramount leader
Paramount leader () is an informal term for the most important political figure in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The paramount leader typically controls the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), often hol ...
and head of state
Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...
, and as such referred to as the "Chinese First Lady" by American and Chinese media. Prior to Xi Jinping becoming leader, his wife was far more famous in China than her husband. She holds the civilian rank equivalent to
major general
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
;
Li Shuangjiang
Li Shuangjiang (; born 10 March 1939) is a Chinese military singer, and is considered one of the best tenors in China.
Biography
Li Shuangjiang was born in Harbin, Heilongjiang, Manchukuo in 1939. Li attended the Central Conservatory of Music ...
(李双江) a Chinese tenor and a Major-General in the PLA’s Naval Song and Dance Troupe. He sold three million albums when he was thirty-two years old.
Trigger Happy series
Guo’s more recent works are based on the ''Red Detachment of Women'', a Cultural Revolution ballet of a battle between evil landowners and good Communist soldiers. The composition of this series of paintings, titled ''“Trigger Happy”'', is more formal and structured than in previous works. ''Trigger Happy XI (2000)'', for example features a line of almost identical women leaning forward with their hands on their knees, gazing directly at the viewer. They wear nothing but army helmets as a kind of superficial protection against an airplane on fire, nose-diving toward the ground in the distance. In front of them, a ballerina from the Red Detachment of Women, wearing an army uniform of blue shirt and shorts, performs an arabesque on ballet pointed-shoes with her arms out-stretched, holding a red kerchief and a gun in her right hand. The contrasts between the naked women and the ballerina suggests a tension between two stereotypes of women (the seductress and the dutiful women) as well as past and present perceptions of the P.L.A.... In a further comment upon the current status of the P.L.A., Guo included in the painting a male soldier crouched on the ground clutching a gun. He wears only green underpants and a metal helmet, yet his body is covered in perspiration. His mouth is open and smiling and his eyes are half-closed, as if aroused. p. 196
Red Detachment of Women 红色娘子军 is an iconic Chinese ballet premiered in 1964 and was one of the Eight Model Operas that dominated the national stage during the Cultural Revolution. It is best known in the West as the ballet performed for President Richard Nixon on his visit to China in February 1972. In 2013, the
National Ballet of China
The National Ballet of China (NBC), known in China as the Central Ballet Troupe was founded on 31 December 1959. It is the national ballet company of the People's Republic of China.
The ballet company works from the Tianqiao Theater, this was s ...
*2013 1979 2010, oil on canvas 50 x 60 cm collection of Professor David Robert Walker the Australian academic historian.
*2011 Study for The Day Before I Went Away 2010 acrylic on canvas 160 x 140 cm collection of Geoff Raby former Australian ambassador to China 2007–2011
*2010 The Day Before I Went Away 2008 oil on canvas 150 x 100 cm collection of
Lucy Turnbull
Lucinda Mary Turnbull AO (née Hughes; born 30 March 1958) is an Australian businesswoman, philanthropist, and former local government politician. She served on the Sydney City Council from 1999 to 2004, including as Lord Mayor of Sydney from ...
(wife of Australian politician
Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Turnbull gra ...
) Lord Mayor of Sydney Australia 2003–04
*2010 I like the Blue Sea 2010 oil on canvas 182 x 300 cm collection of Robert Wilks Melbourne Australia
*2010 One World One Dream aka Dirty Mind 2004 resin glass 110 x 70 cm x 70 cm collection of Geoff Raby former Australian ambassador to China 2007–2011
*2008 The Day Before I Went Away 2008 oil on canvas 152 x 213 cm Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Brisbane, Australia
*2007 Excitement Sideshow – Qigong 1997 oil on canvas 116 x 92 cm collection of Robert Wilks Melbourne Australia
*2004 Self portrait 2003 oil on canvas 160 x 140 cm collection of Thomas Berghuis (curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York)
*2003 Gangsters Paradise 2003 oil on canvas, 160 x 140 cm Casula Powerhouse Liverpool Sydney Australia
*2002 Bubbles of Yum/Girls of Romance 2002 oil on canvas 117 x 132 cm collection of Robert Wilks Melbourne Australia
*2002 The Day before I Went Away #4 2002 oil on canvas 152 x 213 cm ‘Bokchoy Tang Restaurant’, Federation Square, Flinders St, Melbourne Australia
*2000 Trigger Happy 2000 oil on canvas 152 x 213 cm, Collection
Nonda Katsalidis
Nonda Katsalidis (born 1951) is a Greek-Australian architect. He is currently a practising director of architecture firm Fender Katsalidis Architects in partnership with Karl Fender.
Biography
Early life
Nonda Katsalidis was born in 1951 i ...
, Melbourne Australia
*2000 Trigger Happy II 1999 oil on canvas 146 x 198 cm collection of Denis Moriarty and Brendan Shanahan, Melbourne Australia
*2000 Trigger Happy XI 2000 oil on canvas 136 x 119 cm collection of Dan Sutter, Sydney Australia
*2000 Excitement, Great Landscape No 1 1998 oil on canvas 122 x 200 cm Collection of Magistrate Gail Madgwick Sydney Australia
*2001 Wet Dreams 1999 oil on canvas 177 x 132 cm collection of Beau Neilson
White Rabbit Gallery
The White Rabbit Gallery is an contemporary art museum located in the Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the me ...
Sydney Australia
*1999 Cruising 1999 oil on canvas 146 x 198 cm
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in t ...
, Canberra
*1999 Trigger Happy IX 1999 oil on canvas 180 x 200 cm
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in t ...
, Canberra
*1999 National Anthem 1999 oil on canvas 146 x 197 cm collection of
Sam Neill
Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. Neill's near-50 year career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one o ...
New Zealand
*1999 Trigger Happy 1999 oil on canvas 146 x 198 cm collection of
Sam Neill
Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. Neill's near-50 year career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one o ...
Sydney Australia
*1998 Big Screen 1996 oil on canvas 145 x 198 cm 37th Fisher’s Ghost Festival Art Award, Joint Winner Open Section Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery Australia
Private collections in China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Sweden, Belgium, France, New Zealand, Australia and USA
Commissions
*2011 Portrait acrylic on canvas 160 x 140 cm commissioned by Geoff Raby former Australian Ambassador to China 2007–2011
*2010 I like the Blue Sea oil on canvas 180 x 300 cm commissioned by Robert Wilks Melbourne Australia
*2010 Excitement 95 x 145 cm commissioned by Ken West Founder of
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of ea ...
music festival Melbourne Australia
*2009 Portrait of Michelle 180 x 300 cm oil on canvas – commissioned by Robert Wilks Melbourne Australia
*2000–2006 Trigger Happy and Great Tiananmen enlarged print reproductions used as backdrop for main stage of Big Day Out music festival Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane Australia; Auckland New Zealand
*2002 Gilberson – Revolution, Artwork used as backdrop and theme of the band’s MTV music video clip
*2001 Trigger Happy Visible Arts Foundation Installation Art Project, Republic Tower, for Nonda Katsalidis, Melbourne, Australia
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
*2012 Guo Jian, Burwood Gallery, Sydney Australia
*2010 The Cast And Crew, 4A Center for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney Australia
*2009 New Works by Guo Jian, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
*2007 New Works by Guo Jian, Galerie Anne Lettree, Paris, France
*2006 New Works by Guo Jian, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
*2005 New Works by Guo Jian, Michael Reid gallery, Sydney, Australia
*2002 Bubbles of Yum, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia
*2001 Mama’s Trippin’, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia
*2000 Mama’s Trippin, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman House, Canberra, Australia
*1999 Trigger Happy, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia
*1998 Double Happiness is a Warm Gun, Tin Sheds Gallery, University of Sydney, Australia
*1994 Little Bastards, Headspace Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Selected group exhibitions
*2013 First China - ASEAN Art Biennale, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region China
*2013 We: 1994–2013 – The 20th Anniversary Collective Exhibition of China Songzhuang Artists, Songzhuang Art Gallery, Beijing China
*2013 Not A Stranger, 2013 China Songzhuang Foreign Artists Works Show, Songzhuang Huandao Gallery, Beijing China
*2012 First Contemporary Art Show Of Weibo, Songzhuang Art Gallery,
Songzhuang Art Colony
The Songzhuang Art Colony (), located in Songzhuang Town of Tongzhou District (in the eastern suburbs of Beijing), is the most famous and biggest artist community in Beijing. More than 2,000 artists live there.
Originally representing the avant ...
, Beijing China
*2012 Today – Collective Exhibition, Songzhuang Four Times Art Museum, Beijing China
*2010 DHZ (dehistoricalised zone)
Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia
The Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (CACSA), formerly Contemporary Art Society (CAS), was an art museum and art space located in the Adelaide suburb of Parkside, in South Australia. In late 2016 it merged with the Australian Exper ...
, Adelaide Australia
*2010 Crossover Songzhuang Art Festival Australian part, Beijing China
*2009 The China Project, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Brisbane, Australia
*2008 From MAO TO NOW, Armory Gallery,
Newington Armory
Newington Armory is a heritage-listed former Royal Australian Navy armament depot, now used for tourism purposes, at Holker Street, Sydney Olympic Park, Cumberland Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1897 by the Royal Austral ...
, Sydney, Australia
*2008 50X50 SUMMER SHOW, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
*2008 Songzhuang Dreamtime, Songzhuang, Beijing China
*2008 Chinese Voices Chinese Stories,Art Link Art, (2008) http://www.artlinkart.com/en/space/art/580cyvn/f0fhxA, OSAGE Gallery Hong Kong Retrieved 14 February OSAGE, Hong Kong
*2008 Southern Skies Chinese Artists In Australia, The Australian Embassy, Beijing, China
*2008 The Converted Image, DAX Art Space, Beijing, China
*2008 China Project, Galeriaomr O M R, Mexico City, Mexico 6*2007 Backbone Strength, Arts Mansion, Beijing, China
*2006 Guo Jian, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne Australia
*2004 ARTV,
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
ACMI, formerly the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, is Australia's national museum of film, television, videogames, and art. ACMI was established in 2002 and is based at Federation Square in Melbourne, Victoria.
During the 2014-15 finan ...
Sulman Prize
The Sir John Sulman Prize is one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, having been established in 1936.
It is now held concurrently with the Archibald Prize, Australia's best-known art prize, and also with the Wynne Prize, at the Art Galle ...
, Art Gallery Of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
*2003 Liverpool Art Prize, Liverpool, NSW, Australia
*2003 Bendigo Art Prize, Bendigo, Vic, Australia
*2003 Group Show January, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia
*2002 Sir John Sulman Prize, Art Gallery Of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
*2002 The Year In Art Exhibition,
S H Ervin Gallery
The S.H. Ervin Gallery is a major public art institution housed in the historic National Trust Centre in Observatory Park, Sydney.
*2000 Australian Drawing Biennale, Drill Hall,
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
, Canberra, Australia
*2000 Contemporary Australian Art, Musee De Picardie, Amiens, France
*2000 Thinking Aloud...A Drawing Show, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia
*2000 Chinese Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
*1998 Beyond China, Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
*1997 3 X 3 Demonstration Art, Sydney, Australia
*1996 3 X 3 (Video), Touring Berlin, Germany & Auckland, New Zealand
*1992 Yuanmingyan Artists Exhibition, Brussels Art Festival, Belgium
*1992 Forest Art Exhibition, Beijing, China
*1991 Yuanmingyuan Art, Goethe Institute, Dayuan Guesthouse, Beijing, China
*1991 Studio 149, Yuanmingyuan, Beijing, China
*1990 Paintings Of Guo Jian And Zhang Ge, Beijing Art Gallery & Beijing
*1990 Friendship Hotel, Beijing, China
*1988 China Central Minorities Institute Selection, China Art Gallery, Beijing, China
*1981 Provincial Military Art Exhibition, Yunan, China