Global Contemporary Art by Way of Chinatown: Chinese American Art in New York City, 1970-2000
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Date
2022-10-04
Authors
Cole, Jayne
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
New York City, a major capital of the art world since the mid-20th century, has long been an important center for site-specific contributions by avant-garde artists interested in activism, identity, and collectivism. This dissertation investigates the transnational praxis of artists working in New York City’s Chinatown at the end of the 20th century. This time frame encompasses a key period of rapid global, political, and economic transformations, perhaps nowhere more so than the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Following the end of Maoist rule in the PRC (1949 – 1976) and repeal of the Immigration and Nationality Act (1965) in the United States, many artists from East Asia emigrated to cultural centers like New York. Manhattan’s Chinatown, where many artists settled, witnessed a rise in activism, artist collectives, and non-profit gallery spaces because of increased immigration and heightened understandings of global events, including the Vietnam War (1955-1975), Student Protests of 1968, and the Cold War (1947 – 1991). My dissertation examines the visual cultures and oral histories of four Asian diasporic and Asian American artist spaces and collectives in Chinatown to emphasize the importance of site-specific understanding of global contemporary art. My primary case studies are the Basement Workshop, an Asian American artist-activist space (1971-1986); Epoxy Art Group, a Hong Kong artist collective based in New York (1982-1992); the artist collective Godzilla Asian American Art Network (1990-2001); and the Asian American Art Centre, a non-profit exhibition space in Chinatown, founded in 1983. I unearth phenomena integral to global contemporary art history including cross-cultural understanding, nationalism, institutional critique, and methods for expanding the art historical canon. I suggest that global contemporary art produced during the late twentieth century is best understood through site-specific case studies that demonstrate the local impact of these phenomena. I conclude by proposing oral history as a method for global contemporary art history. I argue that the benefits are twofold: first, to empower marginalized artists, including those working in artist spaces and collectives in late 20th century Chinatown, to voice their own stories and, second, to account for local perspectives and site-specific contributions within an increasingly global art history.
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Keywords
Asian American Art, Chinese American Art, Contemporary Art, Contemporary Chinese Art, Global Contemporary Art