The first monograph conceived for the international market devoted to one of the most important Chinese contemporary artists.


Wang Guangyi is considered one of the symbols of new China, because his work reflects, by means of new expressive forms, the deep social changes the country is experiencing.
This monograph reveals for the first time the entire oeuvre of the artist, whose works are are kept in the collections of the major museums and foundations in the world. Though Wang Guangyi’s work has erroneously been associated with Chinese Political Pop, in reality one of the main themes of his art can be found in its relationship to the transcendent.
Born in 1957, Wang Guangyi became one of the great stars of contemporary Chinese art thanks to his Great Criticism series. He analysed both the effects of political and commercial propaganda, with a special reference to the Cold War, and the relationship with the Divine. Moreover, his work is rooted in Kant’s aesthetics as a fundamental reference point. The book includes a wide selection of critical essays that have been published since the second half of the 1980s to our days focusing on Wang Guangyi’s work as well as the Chinese artistic panorama.

Demetrio Paparoni, critic and curator, is member of the Consejo Asesor of the IVAM, Valencia, Spain. He has edited monographs and contributed to catalogues of artists such as Chuck Close, Peter Halley, Alex Katz, Anish Kapoor, Jonathan Lasker, Vik Muniz, Tony Oursler, Mimmo Paladino, David Salle, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Sean Scully, Jenny Saville, Ding Yi, Zhang Huan.