"Cai Guo-Qiang" accompanies the most comprehensive survey to date of the innovative body of work of Chinese-born artist Cai Guo-Qiang. The catalogue presents a chronological and thematic survey that charts the artists creation of a distinctive visual and conceptual language across four mediums: gunpowder drawings made from gunpowder fuses and explosive powders laid on paper and ignited; explosion events, documented by videos, photographs and preparatory drawings; large-scale installations; and social projects, wherein the artist works with local communities to create an art event or exhibition site, documented by photographs. Featuring works from the 1980s to the present, the publication illuminates Cais significant formal and conceptual contributions to contemporary international art practices and social activism. The fully illustrated catalogue features essays by Alexandra Munroe, David Joselit, Miwon Kwon and Wang Hui, along with some sixty documented plate entries.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Essay by Alexandra Munroe offering a chronological and interpretative survey of Cai's major works and key art forms; Essay by David Joselit examining Cai's explosion events as spectacle and their various forms of documentation; Essay by Miwon Kwon that considers the issues of architectural space and site-specific process in the artist's work; Essay by Wang Hui on Western misconceptions of Chinese culture Catalogue and Plates: Early Paintings; Gunpowder Drawings; Explosion Events; Installations; Social Projects; Anthology of Selected Writings.

Author Biography

Alexandra Munroe is the Guggenheim's Senior Curator of Asian Art. David Joselit is a distinguished writer on art and the author of numerous books. Miwon Kwon is an Associate Professor of art history at UCLA. Wang Hui is a noted Chinese literary critic.