LI Xianting (???) (Born 1949)

Born in Jilin Province, Li Xianting is a renowned art critic and sometimes referred to as the “Godfather of Chinese contemporary avant-garde art”. He graduated from Chinese Painting Department, Central Academy of Fine Art in 1978, and became the editor of Fine Art Magzine until 1983. From 1985 to 1989 he was the editor of the authoritative China Fine Art Newspaper, and was active as independent critic and curator based in Beijing henceforth.

In the late seventies and eighties, Li Xianting was a major force in advocating and introducing the burgeoning avant-garde art in China, which just embarked on economic reformation. He organized the pivotal “Stars exhibition” in 1979, and coined the terms “Cynical Realism” and “Political Pop”, which later became the dominant schools of Chinese avant-garde art. Into the 90s, Li Xianting continued to organize major avant-garde art events both inside and outside of China, while settling in Song Zhuang, a small village near Beijing, which hence transformed into the largest artist “colony” in China. Many artists he discovered and promoted, such as Fang Lijun and Wang Guangyi, have received great international attention and become leading figures in Chinese avant-garde art movement.