CAO Weihong, 曹衛紅

2013

from September 27 through December 22, 20 13. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with the symposium "Female Embodiment of the Visual

This paper examines the work of Liu Hung (1948–) a Chinese-born contemporary painter living and working in America. A significant part of her prolific artistic production focuses on what she calls " mythical poses " of women, taking inspiration from the old images of prostitutes and nameless women from the nineteenth and twentieth century China. Assuming that old photography is the source for Liu's visual narrative, this paper intends to analyse how traditional woman imagery is seen through the eyes of the artist. I argue that in her visual narrative, the woman imagery goes through a double process of deconstruction and reinterpretation. The artist extract some descriptive elements from old photos, in order to isolate the most distinctive traditional symbols of Chinese society. Then, she depicts these elements in the canvas, using them as a visual a citation quoted in order to represent the image of woman in traditional China, and to describe the way the Chinese culture has looked at them. These symbols are reinterpreted and given new meaning, acting as a critique about the same imagery. Focussing on some works of art, this paper will analyse this process of deconstruction and reinterpretation. Keywords Old photographs · Liu Hung · Contemporary Chinese Art · Traditional imagery of woman · Chinese overseas artist

2024

Bringing to light the largely overlooked female participation in domestic and international art worlds, this book offers the fi rst comprehensive study of how women embroiderers, traditionalist calligraphers and painters shaped the terrain of the modern art world and gender positioning during China's important moments of sociocultural transformation from empire to republic. It draws on a wealth of previously unexhibited artworks, rare artist's monographs, women's journals, personal narratives, diaries, and catalogs of international expositions to reveal women's significant roles as guardian and innovator of traditionalist art forms and their contribution to cultural diplomacy.

2021

The first monograph devoted to women artists of the Republican period, The Golden Key recovers the history of a groundbreaking yet forgotten force in China's modern art world. Through its detailed examination of the lives and careers of six female artists—Guan Zilan, Qiu Ti, Pan Yuliang, Fang Junbi, Yu Feng, and Liang Baibo—this book argues that women were central to the emergence of modernist art in early twentieth-century China and to the nation’s larger modernization project. Amanda S. Wangwright’s analysis of a wealth of primary sources demonstrates how these women constructed public personas, negotiated space within art societies, applied feminist thought to their artistic praxis, and surmounted obstacles to their careers—wielding art as the “golden key” to professional advancement and gender equality. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Asian Culture and History, 2010

There have been only sporadic attempts to understand Chinese women’s role and influence in the field of visual arts, even though their contribution has been major. This article highlights the significance of women’s participation in modern Chinese culture through the works of several contemporary Chinese women artists who have been professionally active in visual arts in the last two decades. Using an interdisciplinary framework, drawing on concepts from theories of feminism, modernism and postcolonialism, this article seeks to understand a culturally specific field in the history of art, and the relationship of various factors that have contributed to it.

The Blackwell Companion to Asian Art, ed. Rebecca Brown and Deborah Hutton, 2011

Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, 2019

“Troubling the Gaze: The writers and zhiyin of ‘Women’s art’”, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, special Gender issue, vol. 6, no. 1 (2019): 97-112.