Philosophy and Art of Wang Guangyi

Tiziana Andina is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Turin, Italy.Erica Onnis is a PhD student in theoretical philosophy at the University of Turin, Italy, where since 2015, she is a member of the Labont – Center for Ontology.

• List of FiguresNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: Chinese Contemporary Art: Between Deconstruction and Construction, Tiziana Andina and Erica Onnis1. Defining the Human and Humanizing the DivineGratings, Barriers and Boundaries. Wang Guangyi’s Transcendental Painting, Luca IlletteratiWang Guangyi. Popular Study on Anthropology, Demetrio Paparoni2. Duplicating the SceneWang Guangyi’s “Material Spirit”: a Religion Embodied in Art, Tiziana AndinaThe Tears of Pictures. Duplication and Inflection in Wang Guangyi’s Oeuvre, Enrico Terrone3. Bridging the Cultural Divide Through PopOn the Meanings of Propaganda, Erica OnnisA Critique of Wang Guangyi’s “Great Criticism: Coca Cola”, Xian Zhou4. Words and Images: Two Instruments to Describe the WorldWang Guangyi and the Culture of the Cover: on Contemporary Pop Art and Political Theology, Babette BabichThe Globalist Dimension of Art. Wang Guangyi and Transculturalism, Davide Dal Sasso5. Erasing the EmotionsGrief and the Power of the Mind, Carola BarberoThinking with Idols. A Conversation with Wang Guangyi, Andrew Cohen6. The Circle of Life: Presenting and Representing Food.Food Art, A Hymn to Nature, Mary Bittner WisemanFood in Wang Guangyi’s Art, Nicola Perullo7. In Dialogue with Wang GuangyiNothingness, God, the Soul and the World. A Conversation with Wang Guangyi, Demetrio PaparoniDark Learning, Mysticism and Art. A Conversation with Wang Guangyi, Yan ShanchunIndex

Wang Guangyi is the most significant painter to have emerged out of the 1980s encounter between Western and Chinese postmodernisms. This volume’s essays and interviews --adeptly traversing conventional boundaries of art criticism, philosophy, history, and political theory—comprise the most significant treatment in English of Guangyi’s ironic, intellectual, cool, subversive, and yet wildly popular art. And more generally, the book makes vivid how Chinese contemporary art, despite deploying seemingly similar aesthetic strategies to those found in the West, developed out of substantially sui generis concerns.