Qing Dynasty, Republic period and The Peoples Republic 1.900 A.D. - Present

The twentieth century witnesses the fall of the Qing dynasty, and with it, the ancient imperial system. A republic evolves amidst warlordism and conflicts between the Nationalist and the Communist parties. After World War II, the Communists prevail and establish the People's Republic of China.

Artists in the first four decades of the century actively participate in reform movements to promote nationalism and modernism. Many major masters receive training abroad. Traditionalist and imported styles coexist, often taking elements from each other. Private art societies that provide members with exhibition opportunities proliferate. Painting is the dominant practice among the "fine arts," an imported term that connotes nobility and beauty beyond the functional. Many of the age-old arts, such as textiles, ceramics, and jade carving, continue to survive as "crafts" and are excluded from the professional training at the modern art schools and university art departments around the country.

Starting in the 1940s, the Communist party imposes standards on art production. Departures from Socialist Realism and Communist themes are criticized by Chairman Mao Zedong and his supporters until the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966 - 76). From the mid-1980s, a new generation of artists emerges to test boundaries, experimenting with formerly taboo subjects and unconventional mediums.

Important events:

1900 An international force of eight treaty powers–the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Britain, Austria-Hungary—marches into Beijing and ransacks the Forbidden City in reaction to the Chinese violence against foreigners in the Boxer Rebellion.

1911 Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1866 - 1925) leads the Xinhai Revolution that topples the Qing dynasty, ending 5,000 years of imperial rule.

1915 - 16 President of the Republic Yuan Shikai (1859 - 1916), restores the dynastic system for about eighty-one days and proclaims himself Emperor Hongxi.

1920s With the excavation of bronze vessels, carved jade objects, and other artifacts at Anyang (Henan Province), the site of the ancient Shang-dynasty capital of Yin, modern archaeology captures widespread attention in China.

1925 In the spirit of the new Republic, the Forbidden City is converted into the Palace Museum. Forty years later, Taiwan opens a National Palace Museum containing many of the best objects of the former imperial collection.

1943 -44 The Nationalists establish the Dunhuang Research Institute to study the ancient Silk Road site of Dunhuang (Gansu Province), which comes to world attention at the beginning of the century when foreign archaeologists first uncover its rich artifacts and murals.

1949 The Communists gain control of the country and establish the People's Republic of China. Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists establish their own government in Taiwan.

1983 Zhang Daqian (1899 - 1983), one of the great twentieth-century masters of traditionalist painting, dies in Taiwan, his adopted home since 1978. Prolific and stylistically eclectic, he experiments with a broad array of artistic forms, including a manner of splashed-ink landscape reminiscent of the color-field painting in Abstract Expressionism.