Edited by Li Xianting and Huang Rui

The flag-bearers of the Chinese Contemporary Art
In the late 1970s, at the close of the Cultural Revolution, a group of
young, largely auto-didact artists in China endeavored to create artwork
that would depart from present norms and reflect individual ideals. It
was a period of hope for the future, full of energy permeating all levels
of society. The artists came from a variety of backgrounds and had an
even greater variety of artistic training and skill, but their ideas united
them around a common goal. The first exhibition organized by the
Stars group (Xingxing huahui, 星星畫會) is one of the key outdoor
shows and one of the most radical unofficial exhibitions following
the end of the Cultural Revolution, representing for many scholars
the beginnings of a Chinese avant-garde for a post-Mao China. It is
a movement toward artistic democracy―a performance even―taking
place over the course of three years and bringing an engaged group,
with individual ideas, into the heart of the official art establishment.
These Stars would set into motion the policies and norms that later
generations of contemporary Chinese artists would build upon to
expand their minds and artistic vocabularies.
In the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Stars, Stars 79–80
collects the most significant writings, images and artworks of the Stars.
It captures the youthfulness and vibrant of a new ideological movement
that swept through the capital with hurricane force.