“Paul Gladston is one of the few, among many, writers on contemporary Chinese art whom I really find worth reading and thinking about.”
— Jerome Silbergeld, Princeton University
“‘Avant-Garde’ Art Groups in China, 1979–1989 is one of the most thought-provoking books on the subject of contemporary Chinese art. It addresses head-on the problematic identity and cultural politics of contemporary Chinese art in the late 1970s and 1980s. At the same time, it gives reader unfamiliar with the field a theoretically sophisticated introduction. A must-read even for those already familiar with pressing issues related to globalization and contemporary art in general.”
— Jason C. Kuo, University of Maryland, College Park
“Gladston’s interviews will be of value to readers seeking to understand the roots of contemporary Chinese art. . . . an excellent sourcebook through which to discover the contentious, politicized discourse of Chinese artistic modernity in the 1980s.”
— Journal of Asian Studies