In 1992 independent critic and curator Karen Smith moved to Beijing from Hong Kong and decided to write a book about Chinese contemporary art. Over a decade later, it's almost done.
"Well, I only started really writing it for the last three years," says Smith, who hails from England and has a degree in fine art and art history from London's Wimbledon School of Art. She is working on a compendium of articles and interviews with contemporary art stars of the'80s and '90s - artists such as Xu Bing, Wang Guangyi, Fan Lijun, Ai Weiwei, Wang Gongxin and Lin Tianmiao. "I'll be telling their life stories, ambitions, goals, personalities and how all this forms their art," she says. "These are people I have known for at least ten years."
Smith, whose apartment teems with art, including paintings by Yan Lei and Zeng Fangzhi and sculptures by Shi Zhongying and Liang Shuo, left her Hong Kong perch after seeing the China's New Art: Post-1989 show and deciding that the mainland was a much more vibrant art scene. Soon after she arrived, however, she realized that she would have to take the book idea slowly. "I went to a Jorg Immendorf show and every artist I could hope to meet was there - but all I could say was ni hao! I knew then that I had to study the language."
After mastering Mandarin, she started working at the Foreign Language Press in 1994 and left two years later to help set up the CourtYard Gallery. In 1996, she began concentrating on her career as an independent curator and writer, penning for the online art journal China Avant-garde and curating (with Brian Wallace) the 2001 Red Hot exhibition, which gave prominence to younger mainland talents.
But as she started to meet more artists, she realized that she also had to practice caution. "Even though I have a critical eye, there are people who you really want to succeed, so sometimes you look harder ... it generates a different impression of the artwork's value." Smith even adjusted her friendships with the artists who figure in her book. "I started to withdraw because I felt I had to take a step back. Consequently, our conversations became more serious and thoughtful."
It might seem obvious for the book to read like an autobiography, as Smith has grown and changed in step with her subjects. But Smith isn't interested in getting that kind of attention. "You have to be a person [that the public would] want to know about...and I'm not that kind of person, yet. But more importantly, there is a real need for a book that pays tribute to the founders of contemporary art in China."
(China Daily September 28, 2003)
