JIANGSU HUAKAN

[Jiangsu Art Monthly, Nanjing, 1974–]

Founded in the early 1970s as a bi-monthly publication aimed at popularizing the totalitarian art canon of the time, Jiangsu huakan became a specialized contemporary art monthly in 1985, a year that saw the emergence of new art expressions facilitated by the relaxed political climate and manifested in a vast range of art practices and critical debates. This nationwide phenomenon known as the 85 New Wave [Art] Movement was actively followed by Jiangsu huakan, which in the July issue of 1985 published a provocative essay by Li Xiaoshan questioning the limitations, and the future, of ‘traditional Chinese painting’ (Zhongguohua). The article stirred a series of heated debates dealing with the innovation/tradition issue that put traditional academic education under scrutiny.In 1989 the abrupt end of the exhibition ‘China Avant-Garde brought about the closure of Zhongguo meishubao [Fine Art in China], a Beijing weekly that provided the theoretical backbone for the exhibition.

After this episode, Jiangsu huakan became the most important continuously published arena for Chinese and Western contemporary art thinking and practices. It played a significant role in the development of New Literati Painting (Xin wenren hua), and includes detailed reports on major national and international events such as the Venice Biennale and Documenta. Although in the late 1990s its style seemed less glamourous than other more recent periodicals with their sharper pitch and clearer-cut graphic images, Jiangsu huakan remains one of the most longstanding publications that have witnessed and encouraged the growth of contemporary Chinese art. In July 2003, it changed its name to Huakan.

Lü, Peng and Yi, Dan (1992). Zhongguo xiandai yishu shi [A History of Modern Art in China]. Changsha: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 114–20.