From the 1950s to the end of the 1970s, discussions and creative activities on abstract art could not be conducted freely in mainland China. However, with the start of the reform and opening policy in December 1978, abstract art reemerged as the subject of discussion in the Chinese art world. Beginning in the 1980s, exploration of abstract art began again, and abstract art activities became more active as abstract artists influenced by the 1985 Art Movement formed a series of groups. In the mid-to-late 1980s, as the Chinese government recognized abstract art as a socially acceptable form of art, the spirit of rebelliousness and avant-garde nature of abstract art gradually appeared to be weakening. As the pursuit of content and formal diversity expanded throughout the art world, beginning in the 1990s, individual exhibitions of abstract artists and group exhibitions of abstract paintings on a national scale were held, conceptual abstract art emerged, and the continent’s acceptance of overseas Chinese abstract artists also expanded. In the 1990s, as Chinese artists expanded their field to the international stage, attempts were made in China to establish new concepts, definitions, and theories of their own ‘contemporary abstract art,’ which was also the result of the development of abstract art for the first time for more than 20 years without interruption. Since the 2000s, Chinese contemporary art has received unprecedented attention in the international art world, and abstract art has also entered the art market and sought commercialization. In the process of further expanding Asian contemporary art’s overseas expansion, abstract art in China has emerged as a new genre that embodies China’s cultural identity in the art world at home and abroad, coupled with the demand of the art market, which was seeking new investment targets. Previously, Chinese contemporary art was interpreted around China’s specificity, such as its relationship with history, culture, politics, and social environment, but the historical and economic value of Chinese abstract art is being illuminated from a more universal and macroscopic perspective.