Wu Hung

Biography

Wu Hung has published widely on both traditional and contemporary Chinese art. His interest in both traditional and modern/contemporary Chinese art has led him to experiment with different ways to integrate these conventionally separate phases into new kinds of art historical narratives, as exemplified by his Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture (1995), The Double Screen: Medium and Representation of Chinese Pictorial Art (1996), Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square: the Creation of a Political Space (2005), A Story of Ruins: Presence and Absence in Chinese Art and Visual Culture (2012), and Zooming In: Histories of Photography in China (2016). Several of his ongoing projects follow this direction to explore the interrelationship between art medium, pictorial image, and architectural space, the dialectical relationship between absence and presence in Chinese art and visual culture, and the relationship between art discourse and practice.

Wu Hung has received many awards for his publications and academic services, among which he is most proud of the Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching at the University of Chicago (2007) and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Art Association (2008).

Wu Hung is Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and sits on the boards and advisory committees of many research institutes and museums in the United States and China.

Wu Hung delivered the Andrew W. Mellon Lectures at the National Art Gallery in 2019.

Publications

First Class: Teaching Chinese Art History at Harvard University and the University of Chicago

Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House
,
2020

The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China (with Orianna Cacchione)

Smart Museum of Art/University of Chicago Press
,
May 2019

Zooming In: Histories of Photography in China

University of Chicago Press
,
2016

The Art of the Yellow Springs: Understanding Chinese Tombs

University of Chicago Press
,
2015

Contemporary Chinese Art

Thames & Hudson
,
2014

A Story of Ruins: Presence and Absence in Chinese Art and Visual Culture

Princeton University Press
,
2012

Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents

Duke University Press
,
2010

Reinventing the Past: Archaism and Antiquarianism in Chinese Art and Visual Culture

University of Chicago Press
,
2010

Making History: Wu Hung on Contemporary Art

Blue Kingfisher
,
2009

Exhibitions

The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), 2019

Forty Years of Contemporary Chinese Photography---an expended version­­­, OCAT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen, 2018

Wang Dongling: The Bamboo Path, OCAT Museum at Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 2017

Boundary/Space: Wang Huangsheng Solo Exhibition, Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, 2017

Laboratory for Chinese Contemporary Photography, (co-curator), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2017

Forty Years of Contemporary Chinese Photography, Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing; OCAT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen, 2017

Zhang Dali: Permanence and Impermanence, Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, 2016

Twin Tracks: Yang Fudong Solo ExhibitionYuz Museum, Shanghai, 2016

Myth/History II: Shanghai Galaxy, Yuz Museum, Shanghai, 2015

Profiles

Andrei Pop
Andrei Pop
Modern Art and Aesthetics
Department Chair
CWAC 162 | Tuesdays 1-2pm or by appointment.
773.702.0278
Niall Atkinson
Niall Atkinson
Medieval and Renaissance Architecture and Urban History
CWAC 260
773.702.0270
Wei-Cheng Lin
Wei-Cheng Lin
Chinese Art and Architecture
Architectural Studies Advisor
CWAC 268 | Office Hours: Wednesdays 9-10am and 12-1pm
773.702.0268
2006-07
Iowa State University
Assistant Professor, East Asian Art and Architecture
Potters Wheel
Richard Neer
Ancient Greek Art and Architecture
CWAC 259
773.702.5890
Megan Sullivan
Megan Sullivan
Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art
CWAC 272
773.702.5126