Internationally recognized art critic Richard Vine, PhD is the former managing editor of Art in America who has taught throughout the world and has produced more than three hundred art articles.

His books Range from the career survey of "Odd Nerdrum: Paintings, Sketches, and Drawings" and "New China, New Art," which traces the emergence of avant-garde art in post-Mao China to the crime novel "SoHo Sins," set in the New York art world of the 1990s. He has also co-curated exhibitions at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; the National Academy of Art in New Delhi, India, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York.

China Blue speaks to Mr. Vine about his early life listening to his Welsh grandfather, being at the 1970 Kent State shooting and about acclaimed Chinese artists Gu Wenda and activist Ai Weiwei and the renown  ...