Who we are

CHINACADEMY is funded through an ERC Consolidator Grant. The project is headed by Juliane Noth, professor of East
Asian art history and an expert in modern Chinese art. She is working with a team of PostDoc and doctoral researchers,
including Xi Xu, Xiaoya Fang and Yuet Heng Wong. We are collaborating closely with colleagues from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing), the China Academy of Art (Hangzhou) and the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.

How we work

We trace the transnational connections to Japan, France, the Soviet Union, and other regions, in order to show how institutional structures and artistic practices were adapted to the requirements of Chinese society. We study these histories
of cultural translation in three case studies that focus on the three academies in Beijing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, as well as the medium of Chinese ink painting.

Which results are most important

We question existing narratives of modernization and political influence in Chinese art by highlighting personal affiliations, the agency of institutions, issues of conflict, and gendered experiences. By stressing the importance of academic and traditionalist practices, CHINACADEMY also decentres the paradigm of modernism that is still prevalent in global histories of modern art. It proposes a new perspective for a global art history that pushes beyond Eurocentric as well as Sinocentric narratives.

What remains to be examined

After two years of work on the project and three more years to go, we are working with a wealth of archival materials in the published records and institutional archives. It is more challenging to retrieve the experience of marginalized groups and private archives, and there is still a lot of work ahead.