Guest Lecture: Peggy Wang on Contemporary Chinese Art

Art & Architectural History invites you to the upcoming guest lecture Pop and the People: Re-thinking Wang Guangyi’s Great Criticism series by Peggy Wang (Associate Professor of Art History and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College), which will take place next Friday, Feb 26, 11:30 am  – 12:30 pm (EST) on Zoom (Join Zoom Meeting: https://carleton-ca.zoom.us/j/94381719274)

The lecture revisits Wang Guangyi’s Great Criticism series that escalated to international fame in the 1990s.

Cast as a representative of contemporary Chinese art at large, the global renown of Wang Guangyi’s Great Criticism series both emerged from and contributed to tired tropes of political dissidence. This talk looks at what has been oversimplified and missed in readings of these iconic images.  By uncovering new meanings for these works, this talk considers the broader stakes of interpretation in a Western-centered global art world.

Image credit: Wang Guangyi, Great Criticism: Coca-Cola, 1990–93. Oil and industrial paint on canvas, 200 x 200 cm. Courtesy of Wang Guangyi Studio.