Research Practice in Social Sciences
The Market of Contemporary Art in China
Titled Contemporary Art and the Exhibitionary System: China as a Case Study, Linzhi’s doctoral thesis provides the first comprehensive sociological investigation of contemporary Chinese art. Instead of studying the societal or political conditions surrounding the art world, her research focuses on the immediate institutional environment that affects directly the majority of Chinese contemporary artists. Linzhi calls this environment “the exhibitionary system”. It refers to the art institutions that have exhibition-making as their primary task (e.g. museums, commercial galleries and biennales) and the personal networks between artistic directors, curators and artists that connect these institutions. Since exhibition-making has become, beyond its traditional role of showcasing art, an integral way of producing art, her doctoral research explains how art is produced in the exhibitionary system in China.
Her future research will expand to the social production of contemporary ink paintings and calligraphy, aiming to understand how a traditional art genre transforms in the post-socialist Chinese art system.
Zhang, L. (2016). Book Review: Between State and Market: Chinese Contemporary Art in the Post-Mao Era, by J. DeBevoise. China Information, 30(1), 101-102.
Zhang, L., Qu, Y., Cao, X., and Guo, K. (2013). Rural migrants as marginalised citizens: a report on dealers in fake invoices near Xizhimen metro station, in Q. Li & H. Wang (Ed.), Urban Sociology: Beijing City Social Life Survey (pp. 378 - 388). Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press. (in Chinese)
Forthcoming:
Zhang, L. (2020). The Diffusion of Galleries in China: 1991 – 2016, in O. Moeschler, V. Rolle & A. Glauser (Ed.), Sociology of Art and Markets. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
WeChat Official Account: Arts-Sociology