Further Biographical Context for Cao Huaiyi
Born in 1945, Cao Huaiyi was primarily influenced by the 1960s. The universal impact of the 1960s was truly astonishing across the globe. Representative of a time inspiring both hope and anger, the 1960s prompted an explosion of new ideologies and movements, truly exciting and spectacular. Historically set in the context of the Cold War, which would have a highly powerful impact worldwide, largely defined by the Iron Curtain separating Europe both physically and spiritually, and drastically marked by the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The 1960s re-defined all pre-existing expectations on gender, race and justice, questioned education as well as morality and selfhood – for instance through the civil rights movement and second wave of feminism, as well as student political uprisings. The significant escalation of mass consumerism also defined the era, engendering new trends in marketing and advertising. Minimalism established the crucial idea that art should exist in its own reality, and not try to represent the physical world. Born of a desire to obliterate all pre-established conceptions about art, Minimalism turned into a radically progressive movement, highly influential worldwide, with artists such as Frank Stella, Donald Judd and Dan Flavin as key actors. Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Helen Frankenthaler were artists who sought to explore further some of the most fundamental philosophies of Abstract Expressionism, while eliminating the emotional and highly personal aspect it would often associated with it. This led to the creation of Colour Field painting, deeply relating to Minimalism. The iconic contemporary art movements that echoed through the wave of radicalism of the 1960s also had their own nuances and scopes, distinctive to different areas or countries. Spatialism, for instance, was founded in Italy by Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, and its ideologies adopted by the Zero group in Germany. Throughout Europe, the ideologies of Existentialism strongly influenced artists such as Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti, who strived to portray the raw human emotions often associated with reflections on death and the lingering anxiety of the meaninglessness of life.