OCTOBER 23, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 16

China on Canvas
Five young Chinese artists capture the mood of a nation still wrestling with questions of identity

China's painters these days tend to face less political oversight and pressure than do those who work in other art forms. Instead they struggle with more intangible issues and questions. What does it mean to be an individual in a mass society? How does a human being find a place in such a dehumanizing landscape? And, ironically, how is it possible for established painters to earn huge sums from Western collectors precisely for their vehement critiques of materialism? These five up-and-coming young artists, from all across China, paint a complex picture of the nation's troubled search for identity.

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