Chinese Whispers: Recent Art of the Sigg and M+ Sigg Collections

This catalog presents 100 contemporary Chinese artworks from the collection of Uli Sigg, a Swiss businessman and diplomat who started acquiring art in the mid-1990s and now has the largest collection of Chinese art from the late 1970s onward. Artists and their works represent various backgrounds and reference both the international future and the Chinese past. The title of this catalog in German and English refers to a children's game in which information is whispered (and frequently misheard) from one person to another. For the various contributors, this describes how China is misunderstood in the West. The exhibition's artworks date from 2001 to 2014, and include paintings, photographs, videos, sculptures, and works on paper from artists such as Ai Weiwei, Cao Fei, and Fang Lijun. Sections focus respectively on global art, tradition, change, and social values. Artist interviews provide insight into conceptual and technical processes. Two scholarly essays supply political and social context for understanding late 20th-century Chinese art, and an interview with Sigg explores his reasons for collecting.