Most Popular
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The Good Soldier
When the Army tried to take down Andrew Pogany, it messed with the wrong coward.
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Shakeup in Denver Radio
Denver radio's getting a shakeup, with more alterations on the horizon. But do any of the switches qualify as improvements?
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CU Hires Three Pulitzer Winners
Some of newspapering's best and brightest are trading journalism for academia — including three Pulitzer winners hired at CU.
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Crepes n Crepes
French food is no flash in the pan.
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Arapahoe County DA Charges Death-Penalty Fees to the State
How does DA Carol Chambers beat the high cost of a death-penalty prosecution? By billing the prison system.
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Con Artist Gives Funny Cause for Pregnant Pause (8)
Would you pay $20 to get a scam artist off your front porch?
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Hope for the Colorado Rockies Springs Eternal (6)
A What's So Funny special report from spring training in Tucson.
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To the Max (5)
A publicity-hungry student shows how easy it is to become a media darling -- with a little help from CU.
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Sunshine Megatron to Move From T-Shirt Hell (3)
Should millionaire T-shirt mogul Sunshine Megatron make Denver his new neighborhood? You be the judge.
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SXSW 2008 Preview (3)
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Still Moving
Brad Cloepfil surprises the city with a thoughtful design for its newest museum.
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The F-Stops Here
International photographers focus on Denver all month.
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Far and Wide
MCA Denver takes on Chinese Art, while the Lab looks at rural America.
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The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Spurts of laughter, spurts of blood.
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The Gin Game
A battle against the coming darkness.
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Is it Bush's War?
03:40PM 03/26/08 -
Jack Kevorkian and Colorado's Right to Die Movement
02:40PM 03/25/08 -
Last Night ... X @ Bluebird Theater
10:55AM 03/26/08 -
45 Second Reviews: B-52s, De Novo Dahl, Fuck Buttons, Thee Silver Mr. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-la-la Band
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The Pajamas Letter - Part Two
08:30AM 03/26/08 -
Temperature Rising, Prices Dropping at Fahrenheit's
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McCain Wagons West
03:12PM 03/26/08 -
Pundit Watch: Glenn Beck
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Recent Articles By Michael Paglia
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Now Showing
Capsule reviews of current exhibits.
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Still Moving
Brad Cloepfil surprises the city with a thoughtful design for its newest museum.
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Now Showing
Capsule reviews of current exhibits.
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The F-Stops Here
International photographers focus on Denver all month.
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RedLine
Laura Merage makes progress at her future art space.
National Features
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Village Voice
A Long Way Wrong?
Another celebrated memoir threatens to blow into a million little pieces.
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The Photography of Huang Yan|Body Art: New Photography From China
In China, the government still calls the shots.
By Michael Paglia
Published: March 20, 2008
With all the excitement in this country about Chinese contemporary art, the fact that China is a police state is often forgotten. Leave it to the Chinese to remind us with some timely events that reveal the true conditions under which artists live and work there.
A couple of weeks ago, the regional government of Shanghai abruptly canceled an exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum that was to be devoted to Zhang Huan, among the most famous of Chinese contemporary artists. Huan had been banned a decade ago, but as Chinese art began to make an international splash in the past few years, there was greater tolerance for him and other once-blacklisted artists. This cancellation indicates that things are turning back.
Another example of the crackdown hit closer to home when Chinese photographer Huang Yan was unable to come to Denver last week. Huang mixes figurative photography with traditional landscape painting, as in "Brother and Sister" (pictured). He is currently the subject of a solo, The Photography of Huang Yan, at Michele Mosko Fine Art (136 West 12th Avenue, 303-534-5433) and is part of a group show, Body Art: New Photography From China, at Foothills Art Center (809 15th Street, Golden, 303-297-3922). Both are elements of the Month of Photography celebration here.
Huang was refused an exit visa by the Chinese government, and although he and his wife and collaborator, Zhang Tiemei, had already purchased their plane tickets, they were prevented from boarding their flight to the United States. He was unable to come for the shows — or make a presentation at Foothills scheduled for March 15 — though his work had already arrived and the exhibits are going on anyway.
This episode and the one in Shanghai make the point that the creative class in China survives only by the whim of the government. Even when there is no political content, which is the case with the works of Huan and Huang, artists can still run afoul of the authorities.










