The man who took Gilbert and George to China – Business Business Focus

In the 1980s and 1990s, the London Art Merchant James Birch built a lot of reputation selling works on British surrealists and emerging young British artists (YBA) from his Chelsea gallery. Then the world -famous Francis Bacon agreed to allow him to organize an exhibition for him in Moscow in 1988. His memoir from this adventure, Bacon in Moscow (Cheerio Publishing, 2022), is both funny and disappointing in turn and many of them who did business in the 1980s/90s, China will evaluate the hoops that Burch had to go through.

Now, iend Gilbert and George and the Communists (Cheerio Publishing, 2025), Burch wrote about his time, promoting the controversial British artists Gilbert and George B, First Moscow, and then, breaking a new foundation, Beijing and Shanghai in 1993 that artists whose work is He was involved in similar controversial topics and the then shocking language and materials used then should be pioneers in China were incredible and unexpected. How did Burch get the idea and the permissions and then actually managed to put the shows? In the end, Birch will achieve great revolutionary success with exhibitions, and most importantly, Gilbert & George will inspire a generation of young Chinese contemporary artists who continue to fully turn the international art scene on their heads and put China on the world map of the arts. Paul French met with James Birch to remember those times….

Can you briefly explain how the idea came up with Gilbert and George to China in the early 1990s? No one has exposed to China before.

After the success of Gilbert & George in the Soviet Union in 1990, I told Gilbert & George: “Where would you like to go after?” They said, “China. If you can do this, we will be your best friends for life. “

I was absorbed as I had no ties in China, and the square after Tinan’s language, Chinese-British relations were the lowest, but fueled by the incredible response to Francis Bacon’s retrospective and the more Gilbert and George exhibition in Moscow, I took the courage and in Both hands. I asked a friend who worked in China if he knew someone I could go to see – he told me to go to Dublin and look for Brendan Ward, who was the Irish cultural attaché in Beijing during the uprising. Brendan recommended that Wang Xiaoning in the cultural section of the Chinese Embassy, ​​where this story begins.

In 1993, the long shadow of the mandate socialist realism still restricted Chinese art, and local artists who used some of the more controversial motives in their work, similar to those of Gilbert & George, still encounter fines, arrest and self-critism S How did you persuade Beijing to release Gilbert and George?

It was an extremely fast process. Given the incredible restrictions on Chinese artists of the time, I felt that I had one of ten chances to agree with this exhibition. Gilbert & George had a punk attitude and were fearless in the use of images and cultural references, which were often regarded as contradictory, even by the so-called “enlightened” audience of the 20th century. However, the optimist in me hoped that the cultural ministry would recognize the influence of social realism on their work and respond affirmatively. I took with me the catalog of the Moscow exhibition, which I hoped to assure them that G&G has valid “communist powers”. We will never really understand what the difference did, but a week after they visited Mr. Wang, they had a tire exhibition. In retrospection, I feel that they see it as an opportunity to show the West that they are open to new ideas and want to build relationships with us, just to expand their economy.

Previously, you took Francis Bacon and Gilbert and George in Moscow in the days of the old USSR. Both attracted a huge audience. Was it the same in Beijing and Shanghai in 1993 and do you have a feeling of who came – artists, students, regular people?

You are absolutely right! These were mainly artists, students, staff, Beijinors and Shanghairs. The exhibition was a big deal and was constantly packed in both cities. Stephen Spielberg came too! To this day, I have no idea how or why.

Many Chinese artists of a certain generation – born in the 1960s – wrote about how inspired by Gilbert and George’s exhibitions in 1993. While the removal of Gilbert and George in China would obviously attract a lot of media attention to them and their Work, did you also expect how important it is to visit Chinese artists in the years before the big boom in Chinese contemporary art?

I did not realize that there were so many young artists who wanted to have exhibitions in Beijing. What was usually on display was state -funded art. While I was there, a young artist decided to cut his hair in front of the exhibition to protest that Western artists were shown unlike Chinese artists. I am afraid to say that he was arrested and we never knew his fate.

During the days of the exhibition, I did not fully understand its impact. It was only after Shanghai and after a visit to Hong Kong, where I met David Tang, who impressed me how much it was feeling that moment. David was an incredible collector of Chinese social realistic paintings, but also Chinese underground art. His collection was exhibited in the Marlborough Gallery in 1997-98. Charles Saachi bought the greater part of it, and then the West began to show a serious interest in the contemporary art of China.

Gian Juan and Ma Liiming, two major Chinese artists, wrote about how in 1993 they fought – to be fined, chased by cops, unable to show their jobs. Gian said Gilbert and George inspired him to double and continue to perform. Ma said that the meeting with Gilbert and George in Beijing and seeing what two artists who began as performers of performance was the main turning point in his career. Have you had, or did Gilbert & George have any impact you had on the local art scenes in Beijing and Shanghai in 1993?

We visited China in the days of heavy censorship. There was no internet or social media. Unlike Moscow, which is only four hours from the United Kingdom and shares the cultural heritage of Europe, China has felt a world far. It was much more difficult to meet with people, we were never invited to people’s houses, and the outspoken exchange of views was impossible. I know that Gilbert and George visited a number of artists in their studios, which was the first. Even now, it is exciting to learn about their impact on artists such as Gian Juan and Ma Luming.

Finally, what do you think Gilbert and George got out of China’s visit? And you? What was the biggest contrast between Beijing and your previous experience in Moscow?

My charm from China began when I was ten years old. I wrote a letter to the Chinese Embassy asking for a copy of Small red bookS President Mao was my hero. Twenty years later, the USSR began to fall apart – there was a sense of falling an empire. In contrast, Beijing was at the beginning of an economic revolution, though with communist advantage. I was amazed to find that McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut were already in situ – it was so different from the culture I expected.

I really can’t talk about Gilbert & George, but it’s clear even now that they remain constantly interested in the new and unusual and passionately committed to accepting people’s art. After all, one of their most famous slogans is the art for everyone.