Robert H N Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative

"Wang Jianwei: Fourth dimension Temple", the first part of a five-twelvemonth, ten-million-dollar articulation initiative to support contemporary Chinese Art by the Guggenheim Museum and the Hong Kong-based Robert H. North. Ho Family Foundation, was unveiled to the public on Oct 31 (through February 16, 2015) at the Guggenheim in New York. Launched in March 2013, The Robert H. N. Ho Family unit Foundation Chinese Art Initiative at the Guggenheim Museum began with the appointment of Dr. Thomas J. Berghuis as curator to straight and coordinate this vast project involving research, exhibitions, collection, publications and educational programs. The author interviewed the three major players—Dr. Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Guggenheim Museum, Mr. Ted Lipman, CEO of the Robert H. North. Ho Family Foundation and Dr. Thomas J. Berghuis—on the preview mean solar day of Wang Jianwei's "Fourth dimension Temple" to discover more near this ambitious and unprecedented project too equally their reactions to this, the first of 3 commission-based exhibitions.

Yu Hsiao-Hwei: What has been your office in this project over the by year?

Ted Lipman: We are the funders, so nosotros are not involved in the curatorial field….We basically were waiting patiently last twelvemonth. Information technology's like going to a restaurant and ordering a chef'south surprise, and y'all don't know what is going to be served; you might even have nutrient allergies that you hadn't told the chef about….In Baronial, we were informed of the artist, whom of grade we are familiar with and I had opportunities to visit the artist in his studio. That's more or less what we've been doing.

Alexandra Monroe: I would say that we built the team with Thomas Berghuis, and in early March 2013 we launched the Chinese art initiative. It's not just a single curator; we accept an entire team to support the Robert H. Due north. Ho Family Chinese art initiative at the Guggenheim, including other appointments in didactics and 2 appointments in the exhibition direction to manage the invitation, plus curatorial support for Thomas.

Thomas Berghuis: I would say that my function has been tripartite. In terms of Ted'due south reference, I was the sous-chef in the kitchen. The chef was Wang Jianwei—he very much produced the piece of work, and his intellectual take has been inspirational and of import. He also inverse the title from "The Texture of Reality" (my idea) to "Fourth dimension Temple". I've known him for many years, only I actually delved into the research together with my colleague, the assistant curator Stephanie Kwan, who produced the chronology.

The other aspect has actually been giving the artist an opportunity to work with an institution that is ground-breaking. With the mission statement of the foundation'southward initiative to expand our knowledge about Chinese fine art and Chinese civilization, nosotros indeed thought about convening our Asian fine art Council and put Prc at the center of our discussion, and actually asked "How exercise we perceive Communist china today?"; "How does China relate itself to the globe?"; and "How practice we too obtain a broader perspective on Red china which is multicultural as well every bit transnational and international?"

Wang Jianwei, "The Forenoon Disappeared", digital color video with sound, 55 min., 8 sec., edition 1/5, 2014 (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Robert H. Northward. Ho Family Foundation Drove)(This film was produced on the occasion of the commission "Wang Jianwei: Fourth dimension Temple", presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and made possible by The Robert H. Due north. Ho Family unit Foundation)
(All works by Wang Jianwei; © 2014 Wang Jianwei, used by permission)

YHH: This morning Wang talked about his wish to say farewell to specificity, his desire to go rid of all cultural, national and geographical labels…. You all have your own specific specialities and this project is called the Chinese Art Initiative. How do you negotiate this throughout the process? Or was "Chinese" e'er an issue for you?

TL: Our mandate, our mission, is to promote Chinese culture, so nosotros consider this is an important—maybe the nigh dynamic—aspect of contemporary Chinese civilisation. Simply the creative process comes from the individual, not from the funder—or even from the presenter, which is the Guggenheim. I haven't spoken to Wang, only he wants to be presented every bit a contemporary artist who happens to be Chinese. I don't think there is necessarily a contradiction there. We do accept some common goals in that we would like to nowadays the very best and near creative gimmicky fine art that is coming out of Communist china. How one defines People's republic of china depends very much on the person. If you speak to someone like the scholar Zhu Weiming who said that the Chinese culture is a global civilisation, then there are Chinese people or where there are people who speak Chinese but who may non be Chinese. Then we may accept different agendas, but I remember they are not necessarily contradictory

AM: That's what is and so important about this project. I think that in that location's been a lot of Chinese art produced over the concluding 20 years that set out to represent China—sort of screaming "I am Chinese!". That's important, equally it'south a significant function of the Chinese political pop motion—certain artists were referencing the Cultural Revolution as a very genuine and authentic attribute of Chinese art. Merely it's not the only attribute, and representing China is very different from presenting China. I feel that Wang Jianwei, in his forwards-looking ideas about contemporary Chinese society and his delivery to non existence specific, is extremely contemporary and extremely global, and he doesn't lose his Chinese-ness because of that. His Chinese-ness is one aspect of a complicated reality which is to exist a citizen of the earth in 2014—wherever he might exist—and I think it's likewise a sign of the development of Chinese cultural discourse that an creative person can think of himself as equal to artists all around the world. He doesn't need to clothe himself in a Chinese flag to feel comfortable in his own skin. This kind of artist is a truly universal creative person, and information technology'due south that kind of artist that belongs in the Guggenheim collection.

TB: The institution itself is also very important. Why the Guggenheim? The Guggenheim is an establishment which is global, and it has its mandate to focus on international art and is expanding this as we speak. From an international perspective, [the Guggenheim] offers a very close relationship to abstraction and the legacies of abstractions, linking dorsum to its origin as a museum of non-objective painting. What Wang is challenging are notions about what is real and what is abstract, and what he is technically doing is very important to exhibitions of Chinese art—which accept meant that a lot of those artists have been presented through a continuation of the Socialist Realist model. Wang, equally I understand his practice, is challenging this realist discourse around Chinese art and creating a new course which is about abstraction and realism. The Guggenheim has also been investing in the art of the present—art that challenges perspectives on what gimmicky art tin can exist. Wang Jianwei, for me, was very dauntless, only also an obvious choice because he is such a versatile creative person that he non just shows us what a painter or a sculptor can actually do in China, but as well—because of his links to theater—he also shows us that China has a great tradition of modern and contemporary performance and new media exercise.

TL: What's important for us is putting Chinese art into the mainstream—not on the bookshelf of Chinese art, but on the contemporary fine art shelf. I retrieve it also speaks to conviction. China is very confident in its geopolitics, but we don't talk about its culture. I attended early contemporary Chinese exhibitions in the belatedly 1970s. Chinese art was reminiscent of other scenes. At present, there is a certain confidence which is very distinctive. It may exist distinctively Chinese—I think that speaks to 1 of the objectives that nosotros have in terms of placing Chinese culture as part of the mainstream global culture that is developing.

TB: I think we spoke of that last time as well. Curatorially, I brand very witting decisions; we have these book shelves….To have started the initiative with a monograph of an artist, it immediately means allowing this artist to be go onto the shelf of monographs, and so this artist is then suddenly in contact with the other artists he is on the shelf with. Josef Kosuth, with many other artists as well as other artists from China, is on that shelf. That's why I started with a monograph of an creative person.

"Wang Jianwei: Time Temple" works in progress at Wang Jianwei's Beijing studio, 2014 (Photo: Xu Boxin; courtesy the artist)
(All works by Wang Jianwei © 2014 Wang Jianwei, used by permission)

YHH: Could you talk about commissioning instead of collecting afterwards an artist finishes a work? What does this hateful for yous?

TB: I spent last yr not only visiting the artists simply looking at what'south happening in China, with the development of new museums—especially individual museums. One of the questions I go a lot from those museums, collectors and owners is "What is a curator doing?" They see the curator every bit an extension of a collector—a curator goes to an creative person'south studio, selects existing works and puts them into a museum. I recall that is a rather outdated understanding. Ane of the things that a commission does is to permit the artist to delve into the space and the context in which he is going to showroom. The Guggenheim's history and edifice are very important. Also—just to bring it back to the basics—you are giving the artist an opportunity: "What project have you always dreamt of doing?" With a commission, y'all say, "Let'southward endeavour to pursue that dream—allow's create something new."

AM: We take a tradition of site-specific collaboration, co-producing site-specific works for the Guggenheim considering our architecture is then extraordinary. It goes back to Joseph Beuys in 1977, who used the unabridged ramp as a site-specific installation—subsequently came Cai Guo-Qiang, Dan Flavin, Nam Jun Paik, Jenny Holzer….Simply we take likewise taken that tradition and adapted it other areas—equally an inspiration for the structure of initiatives, such as our ten-yr-long collaboration with Deutsche Banking concern. This, in turn, has inspired this initiative with the Robert H. Due north. Ho Foundation.

The commission process besides gives whatever nosotros learn an institutional history—nosotros are a museum, so we don't but get shopping. We have a very big drove acquired from many different sources, including gallery exhibitions and biennials. But past commissioning the works, the artist does not only bargain with the site, but likewise the institution. This show is Wang Jianwei's response; especially on the opening dark, the functioning "Spiral Ramp Library" at the Rotunda is a consummate response to the architecture of the Guggenheim.

TL: And the risks are always bigger, as well.

Wang Jianwei, "Fourth dimension Temple", acrylic and oil on canvas; four panels: 258.5 x 205.five cm each, 258.five x 822 cm overall, 2014 (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Robert H. Northward. Ho Family unit Foundation Drove)(This work was created on the occasion of the commission "Wang Jianwei: Time Temple", presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and made possible by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation)
(All works by Wang Jianwei © 2014 Wang Jianwei, used past permission)(Photograph: Xu Boxin; courtesy the artist)

YHH: What about afterward? What are your plans for the works? How are you lot going to reactivate these site-specific works elsewhere?

TL: From our point of view, 1 of the attractions of the Guggenheim is that it'due south a global institution; every bit a foundation, of course, nosotros would like to see the collection—or part of the collection—to exist presented elsewhere, whether in Bilbao or another museum elsewhere, considering we don't know how it's going to wait like in a couple of years when it appear in other venues. Simply the process is probably a little bit early to decide where it might be, just that certainly is our intention.

TB: All the works in Wang's show are choreographed to accommodate to the Rotunda. Merely as the captions say, they can exist re-ordered and re-exhibited. The beauty of those pieces is that any curator can curate the show and say, "I want to have a representation of Wang Jianwei's 'Fourth dimension Temple' here." The performance happens within the spiral ramp, but some other idea most the operation is that it's an unscripted event that would pb to something which is scripted and choreographed theater. This is something that the artist came up with—as a very of import idea, he is challenging our notion of operation; he is bringing the ideas of performance, happening, ceremony and, unscripted, anarchistic performance space for performance into contact with conventional theater.

AM: One more matter I would like to add together about the collection aspect is that the Asian art initiative has been responsible for the programming of a not bad number of exhibitions, and producing a great bargain of scholarship in both the mod and contemporary areas for East and Due south Asia—more than than whatever other museum of modern and contemporary fine art in the world. Compared with the Tate or Tate Modern, we take produced a lot. Just what do nosotros have in our collection? Information technology occurred to u.s. a few years ago that it'southward not enough to take excellent programming unless our ideas tin can be preserved in that collection; artworks might accept limited affect, but to have a work in a drove means that you lot are ensuring—you are mandating—that that work and that region volition proceed to be subjects of exhibitions and enquiry. For me, to have a permanent drove in this museum is to going to have an impact that no single exhibition can accept—we telephone call this "Deoxyribonucleic acid"; yous take to alter the Dna of an institution—we're changing the behavior of the museum, simply to ensure that it won't revert to the old pattern, y'all accept to have a collection. That represents the tremendous generosity of the foundation.

YHH: What's your feeling almost the first projection? And based on the your experience of this kickoff project, are you going to readjust your way of doing things in over the next three years?

TL: As for the second function of the question, it'south for the curator to reply and non the states. We left the selection, curation and presentation to the experts, only obviously contemporary Chinese art is something that we are non unfamiliar with. The artist's piece of work spans certain periods of time; I recollect he has a very crucial agreement…of the evolution of new genres in China, having begun beginning as a traditional painter and moved towards a whole bunch of media. For me, this is a very good option, because he represents a period of time which is crucial to the agreement of gimmicky China, and it offers a balance of unlike medias which is sort of what'due south going on in the art world in Mainland china today. There are very few—mayhap no other—unmarried artist who turned out with that many dissimilar kinds of works within the period of time and the strength, the resources provided. Also, the fact that he is not that well-known exterior of Red china also satisfied our intent to support deserving artists who need more global recognition.

YHH: Does the event correspond to what you lot expected one or two years agone?

AM: Aye, in many ways information technology surpasses that, and also we don't know yet, we however accept the reviews to come out! The reviews, of course, count; we don't know what the reviews are going to say. I recollect Wang is an artist whom Cathay knows very well, just an artist who is going to take some fourth dimension for the audience hither to appreciate—then there are many ways to mensurate the success of an exhibition. I am really excited and very satisfied, but my stance doesn't matter, it depends on the stance of the critics and that of the public, but from the institutional indicate of view, we are very satisfied. A big part of our work is to build a human relationship and an open door with China, and that's what the foundation is making possible for the states.

Wang Jianwei, "Time Temple 3″, wood, rubber, and brass; two parts: i part 87.v x 205 x 124 cm; ane role 92 10 188 10 91 cm, dimensions vary with installation, 2014 (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Robert H. Due north. Ho Family Foundation Collection)(This work was created on the occasion of the commission "Wang Jianwei: Time Temple", presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and fabricated possible by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation)
(All works past Wang Jianwei © 2014 Wang Jianwei, used by permission)

Wang Jianwei, "Time Temple", acrylic and oil on canvas, 210 x 301 cm, 2014 (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Collection)(This piece of work was created on the occasion of the commission "Wang Jianwei: Time Temple", presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and fabricated possible by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation)
(All works by Wang Jianwei © 2014 Wang Jianwei, used by permission)(Photograph: Xu Boxin; courtesy the artist)

Wang Jianwei, "Fourth dimension Temple i″, wood and rubber; seven parts: one function 87 ten 110 x 70 cm; ane office 82 x 145 ten 59 cm; ane part 88.5 ten 159 x 38 cm; one part 60 10 57 10 39 cm; one part eighteen x 150 ten 92 cm; 1 function 200 x 98 x ii cm; one part 90 x 76 x 2 cm, dimensions vary with installation, 2014
(Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Collection)(This work was created on the occasion of the committee Wang Jianwei: Time Temple, presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and fabricated possible past The Robert H. N. Ho Family unit Foundation)
(All works by Wang Jianwei © 2014 Wang Jianwei, used by permission)

Wang Jianwei, "Time Temple 2, wood, rubber, and steel; v parts: one part 196 x 152.5 x 123 cm; one part 150 x 220 x 117 cm; one role 147 ten 97 x 102 cm; one part 35 10 60 x 35 cm; i part 35 x threescore x 35 cm, dimensions vary with installation, 2014
(Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Collection)(This work was created on the occasion of the committee Wang Jianwei: Time Temple, presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and made possible by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation)
(All works by Wang Jianwei © 2014 Wang Jianwei, used past permission)

Wang Jianwei, "Time Temple iv″, wood and pigment; two parts: one role 340 10 124 10 58 cm; 1 part 90 x 211.v x 101.5 cm, dimensions vary with installation, 2014
(Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Robert H. N. Ho Family unit Foundation Collection)(This piece of work was created on the occasion of the commission Wang Jianwei: Fourth dimension Temple, presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and made possible by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation)
(All works by Wang Jianwei © 2014 Wang Jianwei, used past permission)

Wang Jianwei, "Time Temple 4″, woods and pigment; 2 parts: one function 340 x 124 x 58 cm; 1 role 90 x 211.v x 101.5 cm, dimensions vary with installation, 2014
(Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Collection)(This piece of work was created on the occasion of the commission Wang Jianwei: Time Temple, presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and made possible by The Robert H. Northward. Ho Family Foundation)
(All works by Wang Jianwei © 2014 Wang Jianwei, used by permission)

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