The institutional and critical reception of American Abstract Expressionism in Taiwan and China

Abstract Expressionism exerted considerable influence upon the postwar world. It was the first American art school with a profound and international influence. Its rise enabled New York to replace Paris as the center of Western art after World War II. From its origins in the United States, Abstract Expressionism spread throughout the world, becoming an international language whose dissemination and global influence have been described by many art historians as the product of American political, military and cultural power.;This study examines the reception of Abstract Expressionism in Taiwan and China where the respective encounters with American Abstract Expressionism were closely related to the context of Cold War diplomacy. My research on the arrival of Abstract Expressionism in Taiwan and China focuses, however, on the response of art institutions (museums and galleries) and critics, and I am able to show that, in both Taiwan and China, the reception of American Abstract Expressionism was equally influenced by their internal cultural and social contexts and by local frames of meaning and value.;Exhibitions of American Abstract Expressionist works exported by American institutions were received in Taiwan and in China in very different social and political contexts and were framed by very different local concerns and interests. Critical responses to these exhibitions of Abstract Expressionist works were thus shaped in China and Taiwan by very different narratives. The understanding and interpretation of Abstract Expressionism had its own peculiar local characteristics, making it very different in China and in Taiwan, but also marking the difference between local frames of understanding and the representation of Abstract Expressionism that American institutions wanted to promote. Just as the meaning of a text is not defined by the sender's intention, so the cross-cultural or transnational transmission of art cannot be subsumed under the strategic interests and cultural-political agendas of the country of origin. The conditions of reception have an active and central role in shaping the meanings the works take on. Consequently, the international popularity of Abstract Expressionism cannot be simply seen as the product of American cultural power and its Cold War strategy. By exploring the institutional and critical reception of Abstract Expressionism in Taiwan and China, this dissertation contributes to a new account of the global impact of postwar American avant-garde art.