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No Name Group Retrospective

The No Name Group retrospective organized by Gao Minglu, the internationally recognized curator of the first major exhibition of Chinese contemporary art in New York and San Francisco, Inside Out New Chinese Art (1998), is an intimate display of quiet, impressionistic and small scaled canvases-a show that differs largely in scale and content from many current Chinese contemporary art exhibitions. These vivid oil paintings and drawings on cloth, board and paper are instantly accessible intimate explorations of scenes from daily life in Beijing, thus providing an important visual record of the early origins of the Chinese avant-garde. 

The No Name Group emerged earlier than the better known exhibitions of experimental art by the Stars Group in post-Cultural Revolution China. Its founders, Zhao Wenliang, Yang Yushu, Shi Zhenyu and Zhang Da’an were already creating “art for art’s sake” as early as the late 1950s. Artist Zhang Wei, one of the youngest in the No Name group, recalls: “There were not as many exhibitions as there are today; so we learned from looking at books, with Cezanne and Picasso, and from daily conversations with other artists.” 

Without historical context, these works seem like artistic exercises in oil painting and drawing, heavily influenced by western Impressionism.  Images of sunsets over the Temple of Heaven, quiet reflections over Beihai Park and other scenes with casual silhouettes are idealistic and poetic meditations of life in Beijing that starkly contrast with the themes of political propaganda and materialistic kitsch that emerged in later art. As a result, this exhibition provides a record of the dialogues of artists with their natural surroundings and social conditions during this pivotal moment in Chinese contemporary art history.

A bus from the TRA Gallery to the YQK Deshan Art Center will be available on October 10. Please contact the galleries for more details.

TRA Gallery: Chaoyang Winery, Beihuqu Lu, Anwaibeiyuan Jie.

Call: +86 10 5202 3883

YQK Deshan Art Center: 200 metres West of Jingshun and Beigao Lu,

Cuigezhuang, Chaoyang District,

Call: +86 10 6431 0018