Title: Chinese Contemporary Art as a Mirror of China’s Transformation: Through Images, 1970s - Present

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Lecture

Wed, Nov 18, 2026

4:30 PM – 6 PM EST (GMT-5)

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The Grand Hall, Princeton University Art Museum

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Details

Over the past half-century, China has undergone extraordinary political, social, economic, and cultural transformation. Contemporary Chinese art has emerged alongside these changes, reflecting and responding to the profound shifts in Chinese society and China’s relationship with the wider world.
Drawing on images of works from the Sigg and M+ Sigg Collections, Uli Sigg will present a visual history of Chinese contemporary art from its beginnings in the 1970s to the present. The lecture will trace key moments and movements, from Socialist Realism and the independent experiments of the No Name Group and Stars Art Group, through the ’85 Art Movement and the emergence of performance and video art, to Cynical Realism and the artistic responses to globalization and consumer culture. It will continue through the years surrounding the Beijing Olympics and global financial crisis and into more recent developments in digital media and contemporary artistic practice.

Where

The Grand Hall, Princeton University Art Museum

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Speakers

Uli Sigg's profile photo

Uli Sigg

Visiting Professor at the University of Zurich

Uli Sigg is one of the world’s foremost collectors and experts on Chinese contemporary art. His engagement with China spans more than four decades across business, diplomacy, and art. In 1980, he guided the establishment of the first industrial joint venture between China and the outside world. He later served as Switzerland’s Ambassador to China, North Korea, and Mongolia, subsequently also as a member of the Advisory Board of China Development Bank for 15 years.



Over several decades, Sigg assembled more than 2,500 works, creating a collection uniquely documenting Chinese contemporary art from its beginnings in the 1970s to the present. In 2012, he donated 1,450 works to M+ in Hong Kong. He also founded the Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA), now the SIGG PRIZE at M+, and currently teaches as a Visiting Professor at the University of Zurich.


Sponsors

Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China. No image description provided

Hosted By

Center on Contemporary China | View More Events
Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Center on Contemporary China (OWNER)