Li Shuang (artist)
Encyclopedia
Li Shuang born in Beijing in 1957, is a contemporary Chinese artist.
Li Shuang’s works testify to her painful personal and artistic journey. She grew up in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution within a family of intellectuals. Her early childhood artistic development was influenced by her grandfather, a dealer in Chinese antiques, books and art.
Upon graduating from high school in 1976, Li Shuang was sent to work with her fellow graduates as a peasant farmer for two years in the countryside near Beijing. To escape from the daily routine of physical labor, she began to paint.
After her return to Beijing in 1979, Li worked as a stage designer for the Chinese National Youth Art Theatre. She emigrated to France in 1983.
In 1979, together with Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Huang Rui
, Qu Leilei
, Zhong Acheng
and Ai Weiwei
, Li Shuang founded the Stars Group (XingXing), an assembly of untrained, experimental artists who challenged the strict tenants of Chinese politics. As a political and artistic group, they staged exhibitions around Beijing, making way for avant-garde art in China. Li Shuang was the only female artist founder of the Stars. Li exhibited in both the historic shows of 1979 and 1980.
Her works were featured in all the Stars group shows, The Stars: Ten Years, 1989 (Hanart Gallery, Hong-Hong and Taipei), Demand for Artistic Freedom, The Stars 20 Years, 2000 (Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo) and the retrospective exhibition in Beijing in 2007: Origin Point (Today Art Museum, Beijing).
As the French critic Michel Nuridsany wrote: "While the Chinese art world is going through a phase of unrestrained modernity, Li Shuang’s oeuvre is striking for its lack both of contemporary references and of all sense of febrile haste and by its intensity. This is because her art developed separately from the Chinese context, which encouraged a style of painting which reached its apogee in 1999-2000 – a style which in no way reflected her own experiences. Her strongest advantage has been her silence. Her aura. But first and foremost, her admirable sense of light"
Li Shuang’s works testify to her painful personal and artistic journey. She grew up in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution within a family of intellectuals. Her early childhood artistic development was influenced by her grandfather, a dealer in Chinese antiques, books and art.
Upon graduating from high school in 1976, Li Shuang was sent to work with her fellow graduates as a peasant farmer for two years in the countryside near Beijing. To escape from the daily routine of physical labor, she began to paint.
After her return to Beijing in 1979, Li worked as a stage designer for the Chinese National Youth Art Theatre. She emigrated to France in 1983.
In 1979, together with Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Huang Rui
Huang Rui
Huang Rui is a Chinese artist known for his social and cultural criticism. He is widely considered one of the founding members of the Chinese Contemporary art movement, and continues to produce work that reflects the concerns of a highly socially engaged artist through historical references and...
, Qu Leilei
Qu Leilei
Qu Lei Lei is a modern Chinese calligrapher, painter and author currently based in the UK.Qu grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution and spent some time forced to work as a lumberjack after his parents were branded capitalists...
, Zhong Acheng
Zhong Acheng
Zhong Acheng , often known by his pseudonym Ah Cheng, is a Chinese author and screenwriter.In 1979, together with Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Qu Leilei, Ai Weiwei, A Cheng founded the Stars Group , an assembly of untrained, experimental artists who challenged the strict tenets of...
and Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008...
, Li Shuang founded the Stars Group (XingXing), an assembly of untrained, experimental artists who challenged the strict tenants of Chinese politics. As a political and artistic group, they staged exhibitions around Beijing, making way for avant-garde art in China. Li Shuang was the only female artist founder of the Stars. Li exhibited in both the historic shows of 1979 and 1980.
Her works were featured in all the Stars group shows, The Stars: Ten Years, 1989 (Hanart Gallery, Hong-Hong and Taipei), Demand for Artistic Freedom, The Stars 20 Years, 2000 (Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo) and the retrospective exhibition in Beijing in 2007: Origin Point (Today Art Museum, Beijing).
Art
Li Shuang believes Chinese art is a spiritual movement of the heart - Chinese paintings come from the heart, while Western paintings concentrate on the scene.As the French critic Michel Nuridsany wrote: "While the Chinese art world is going through a phase of unrestrained modernity, Li Shuang’s oeuvre is striking for its lack both of contemporary references and of all sense of febrile haste and by its intensity. This is because her art developed separately from the Chinese context, which encouraged a style of painting which reached its apogee in 1999-2000 – a style which in no way reflected her own experiences. Her strongest advantage has been her silence. Her aura. But first and foremost, her admirable sense of light"