The Stars Art Group.

About The Stars Art Group

The Stars Art Group or simply "The Stars" was a Chinese avant-garde group of non-professional artists in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was founded by Ma Desheng and Huang Rui; its members included Wang Keping (王克平), Qu Leilei, Ah Cheng, Ai Weiwei, Li Shuang, and Yan Li. A historically significant exhibition, now called the Star Art Exhibition, took place in late 1979 in Beihai Park, Beijing, outside the China Art Gallery. After the exhibition was closed by officials, the group staged a protest for cultural openness. They succeeded in reopening the exhibition. The exhibition took place between 23 November and 2 December, in which around 200,000 people attended the event. The group organized another exhibition the next year. Around and after 1983, the group disbanded, partly due to their members going into exile under political pressure, especially the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign of 1983.