Modern Chinese ArtistsInteractive Timeline

Phase 02 / Comparative chronology

Postwar in motion

Move through the dates when art, migration, war, institutions, and memory changed one another.

1919-2014historical range6artist lives60artworks23context events
Selected year1949

1940-1949 / 8 visible events

192019401960198020002014
Political history

Mainland China / Taiwan / Hong Kong / diaspora

1949

Political change divides artistic routes

The founding of the People's Republic, retreat of the Nationalist government to Taiwan, and Cold War division reorganized education, travel, exhibitions, and artistic authority across mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the diaspora.

Zao Wou-Ki 赵无极Sanyu 常玉Wu Guanzhong 吴冠中Chu Teh-Chun 朱德群Lin Fengmian 林风眠Pan Yuliang 潘玉良
Montagne grise et jaune by Zao Wou-Ki, a yellow mountain landscape traced with fine signs on a grey fieldNearby work, not an illustrationMontagne grise et jaune, 1950

Current period

1940-1949

Select an event to place it in the focus panel.

Reading the field

A timeline is a comparison tool, not a claim that history moves in one line.

Dates make simultaneity visible. In 1966, Sanyu's Paris career ended while the Cultural Revolution placed Lin Fengmian and Wu Guanzhong under violent pressure in China. The same year did not mean the same history everywhere.

Approximate artwork dates remain approximate here. Historical entries identify nearby works as points of comparison, never as documentary illustrations of political events.