Museum of the 21st Century (China Edition)

The Australian profiles Judith and Paris Neilson who are responsible for putting together Australia’s new private museum of Chinese Contemporary art:

With more than 400 works by 160 artists, the White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection is one of the nation’s largest, most ambitious and eagerly anticipated privately funded art museums. The collection is dedicated to contemporary Chinese art and only works produced since 2000. It is displayed across 2000sqm of space, reportedly developed at a cost of about $10 million, on four levels. The publicity material describes it, with some justification, as one of the most significant collections of contemporary Chinese art anywhere in the world.

Edmund Capon, director of the Art Gallery of NSW and a specialist in the art of China, says the collection is a significant addition to the cultural infrastructure of Sydney. He says the works capture some of the essence of contemporary China, where tensions remain between maintaining social order alongside a “degree of liberty” for citizens.

“Everything here, however dramatic, different, energetic or global it might be, has some subtle nuance, some subtle stamp, that says: ‘Made in China,”‘ Capon says. “There is this subtle battle between freedom and authority. It’s absolutely an indelible part of contemporary Chinese life and I think it’s manifested in the works here.”