Xu Bing (; born 1955) is a Chinese artist who served as vice-president of the
Central Academy of Fine Arts
The Central Academy of Fine Arts or CAFA is an art academy under the direct charge of the Ministry of Education of China. The Manila Bulletin calls the school "China’s most prestigious and renowned art academy". It is one of the most selectiv ...
. He is known for his printmaking skills and installation art, as well as his creative artistic use of language, words, and text and how they have affected our understanding of the world. He is an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
. He was awarded the
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...
in 1999 and the
Fukuoka Prize
The is an award established by the city of Fukuoka and the Fukuoka City International Foundation (formerly The Yokatopia Foundation) to honor the outstanding work of individuals or organizations in preserving or creating Asian culture. There are ...
in 2003.
Biography
Born in Chongqing in 1955, Xu grew up in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. His father was the head of the history department at
Peking University
Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education.
Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...
. In 1975, near the end of the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
, he was relocated to the countryside for two years as part of Mao Zedong's "re-education" policy. Returning to Beijing in 1977, he enrolled at the
Central Academy of Fine Arts
The Central Academy of Fine Arts or CAFA is an art academy under the direct charge of the Ministry of Education of China. The Manila Bulletin calls the school "China’s most prestigious and renowned art academy". It is one of the most selectiv ...
(CAFA) in Beijing, where he joined the printmaking department and also worked during a short period of time as a teacher, receiving his master's degree in Fine Art in 1987. After the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests
The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...
, his recent work came under scrutiny from the government and received harsh criticism for what was perceived as a critique of the Chinese government. Due to the political pressure and artistic restrictions of the post-Tiananmen period in China, Xu Bing, like many of his contemporaries, moved to the United States in 1990 where he was invited by the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
. He then resided to the United States until his appointment as vice-president of the Beijing CAFA in 2008.
In 1990–91, Xu had his first exhibition in the United States at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
's Elvehjem Museum of Art (now
Chazen Museum of Art
The Chazen Museum of Art is an art museum located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. The Chazen Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
History
Until 2005, the Museum was known regularly as th ...
) including his installations ''
A Book from the Sky
''A Book from the Sky'' () is the title of a book produced by Chinese artist Xu Bing in the style of fine editions from the Song and Ming dynasties, but filled entirely with meaningless glyphs designed to resemble traditional Chinese characters. ...
'' and ''Ghosts Pounding the Wall''. In ''Book from the Sky'', the artist invented 4,000 characters and hand-carved them into wood blocks, then used them as
movable type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuatio ...
to print volumes and scrolls, which are displayed laid out on the floor and hung from the ceiling. The vast planes of text seem to convey ancient wisdom, but are in fact unintelligible. ''The Glassy Surface of a Lake'', a site-specific installation for the Elvehjem, was on view in 2004–05. In this work, a net of cast aluminum letters forming a passage from
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...
's ''
Walden
''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...
'' stretches across the museum's atrium and pours down into an illegible pile of letters on the floor below.
Working in a wide range of media, Xu creates installations that question the idea of communicating meaning through language, demonstrating how both meanings and written words can be easily manipulated. He received a
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...
grant in July 1999, presented to him for "originality, creativity, self-direction, and capacity to contribute importantly to society, particularly in
printmaking
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...
and
calligraphy
Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
."
In 2003 he exhibited at the then new Chinese Arts centre in Manchester, and in 2004 he won the inaugural "Artes Mundi" prize in Wales for ''Where does the dust collect itself?'', an installation using dust he collected in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on the day after the destruction of the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
. He won also a half year of free work and study at the
American Academy in Berlin
The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany ...
2004.
Xu Bing was appointed the new vice president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, March 2008.
Art
Early works
While at the Central Academy of Fine Arts Xu Bing mastered the
Socialist Realism
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
style of art so predominant during the Maoist era. After graduating with his degree in printmaking, the artist veered away and created simple but dramatic woodcuts, such as ''Shattered Jade'' (1977) and ''Bustling Village on the Water'' (1980–81, 繁忙的水乡). In 1987, Xu Bing returned to his training in printmaking to create large and elaborate installation pieces like ''
Book from the Sky
''A Book from the Sky'' () is the title of a book produced by Chinese artist Xu Bing in the style of fine editions from the Song and Ming dynasties, but filled entirely with meaningless glyphs designed to resemble traditional Chinese character ...
'' (1987) and ''Ghosts Pounding the Wall'' (1990).
Installation pieces
''A Book from the Sky''
Xu Bing's ''Tianshu'' ("Book From the Sky") is a large installation featuring precisely laid out rows of books and
hanging scroll
A hanging scroll is one of the many traditional ways to display and exhibit East Asian painting and calligraphy. The hanging scroll was displayed in a room for appreciation; it is to be distinguished from the handscroll, which was narrower and ...
s with written "Chinese" texts. Even so, this work challenges our very approach to language because of the unique nature of the text written on the paper. First presented in Beijing in 1988, the learned élite felt slighted by the artists' bold move to design and print over 4,000 characters that looked Chinese but were completely meaningless according to standard Mandarin. Xu Bing infuses his work with meaning by stirring confusion and discomfort in his audience, mostly due to the fact that the
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
used in these texts are not "real" characters.
This piece was well received in China until 1989, whereupon the social and political drama of the
Tiananmen Square protests
The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...
led the government to look askance at Xu Bing's ''Tianshu''. Leaving China in 1991 for the political and artistic freedom of the United States, Xu Bing continued to explore and express his thoughts on deconstructing language to challenge our most "natural" cultural assumptions. His thought-provoking work enticed Western audiences, and he soon became one of the leading artists in the modern Chinese art scene.
''Ghosts Pounding the Wall''
Using his background in print-making, in May and June 1990 Xu Bing and a team of art students and help from local residents began a monumental project: creating a rubbing from a section of the
Great Wall
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against Eurasian noma ...
at
Jinshanling
Jinshanling () is a section of the Great Wall of China located in the mountainous area in Luanping County, Chengde, Hebei Province, 125 km (78 miles) northeast of Beijing. This section of the wall is connected with the Simatai section to ...
. In order to create the rubbings, Xu Bing used entirely traditional Chinese methods and materials for
stone rubbing
Stone rubbing is the practice of creating an image of surface features of a stone on paper. The image records features such as natural textures, inscribed patterns or lettering. By rubbing hard rendering materials over the paper, pigment is deposi ...
, including rice paper and ink. Measuring 32m x 15m, the resulting installation piece consists of 29 rubbings of different sections of the Great Wall.
As in the case of many of his works, Xu Bing directly related his colossal piece, ''Ghosts Pounding the Wall'', to the political situation in China. While surveying his work while installed at Elvehjem Museum of Art, Xu Bing said that his Great Wall represents "a kind of thinking that makes no sense and is very conservative, a really closed-in thinking that symbolizes the isolationism of Chinese politics." The prints of the Great Wall rise up on either side of the exhibit, making the viewer seem small and insignificant in comparison to the massive, looming representations of solid stone walls.
''Square Word Calligraphy''
![EnglishChinaWriting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/EnglishChinaWriting.jpg)
From 1994 he started a new project, in which he adapted
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
s into the shape of ''hanzi''. He called this ''New English Calligraphy'', and gave lessons in how to write the characters.
''Background Story''
In his series ''Background Story'', Xu Bing uses unusual materials in order to create a deceptively typical
Chinese Scroll Painting
Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as ''guó huà'' (), meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western style ...
. From the front, the piece very much resembles a traditional
Shan Shui
''Shan shui'' (; pronounced ) refers to a style of traditional Chinese painting that involves or depicts scenery or natural landscapes, using a brush and ink rather than more conventional paints. Mountains, rivers and waterfalls are common s ...
(Landscape) scroll painting, with images of mountains, trees, and rivers. However, when seen from behind, the viewer is surprised to find that the beautiful "painting" is in fact created by using the shapes and shadows of random natural plant debris. Once again, Xu Bing challenges his audience's basic assumptions and shows them that everything is not always as it first seems. In 2022, Xu Bing created a version of ''Background Story'' for Cornell University’s
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art ("The Johnson Museum") is an art museum located on the northwest corner of the Arts Quad on the main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its collection includes two windows from Frank Lloyd W ...
based on a
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
work in its collection, ''Woodcutter in Winter Mountains'', by Yang Xun. Through his reconsideration of the earlier landscape painting, the artist practices ''fang,'' a traditional form of artistic imitation.
Phoenix project
In 2008, after returning to China to take the position at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Xu Bing was asked to create a sculpture for the atrium of the World Financial Center, which was then being developed in Beijing. He was shocked by primitive working conditions he saw at the construction site, later saying that they "made my skin quiver." He was inspired to construct two large sculptures in the form of birds that are made largely out of construction debris and tools that he salvaged from the site. The larger sculpture, 100 feet (30 meters) long, is identified as a male and named Feng in accordance with the Chinese
phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
tradition. The smaller one is 90 feet (27 meters) long and is a female named Huang. Originally planned to take four months, the sculptures ultimately took two years to build; by that time the developers of the complex had decided the sculptures did not meet their needs. They were displayed at the
Today Art Museum
The Today Art Museum is a museum located in Beijing.
References
{{authority control
Museums in Beijing
Art museums and galleries in China
Art museums established in 2002
2002 establishments in China ...
in Beijing and at the
Shanghai World Expo
Expo 2010, officially the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, from 1 May to 31 October 2010. It was a major World Expo registered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in the tr ...
before coming to the United States in 2012. After a year at the
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ar ...
, they were then moved to the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where they were unveiled to the public on 1 March 2014. They were suspended from the ceiling of the nave, where they are now expected to spend about a year.
The Phoenix sculpture is the subject of the documentary ''Xu Bing: Phoenix'' by Daniel Traub.
Later mediums
Xu Bing's art medium has evolved over the years, morphing from one style to the next: print-making and wood-block carving, installation art, live installation art, metalwork and sculpture, landscaping, and even virtual and digital mediums.
Taking installation art a step further, Xu Bing focused on live installation art by using animals in his exhibits, such as in the case of the ''Silkworm Series'' and a ''Case Study of Transference'' (using silkworms and pigs, respectively) in 1994, or by showcasing sheep in ''The Net'' (1997). Later he explored the combination of modern and traditional mediums, as in the case of ''Background Story'' (2004–present) where his work imitates a traditional Chinese brush and ink scroll from the front, but is in fact designed by means of the projected shadows of plants and sticks. Even more recently, Xu Bing has delved into sculpture and metalworking, as seen in ''Monkeys Grasping the Moon'' (2001) and the ''Phoenix Project'' (2010).
Influences and themes
Xu Bing's art mostly reflects cultural issues which raged during his early life in China. Most notably, the cultural and linguistic reforms enacted by the
Communist Party in China
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
under
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
's leadership weigh heavily on modern Chinese artists who lived through this period. Similarly, the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
(1966–1976) also rankles the modern Chinese artistic consciousness even though different artists have focused on different angles. Xu Bing in particular plays with the notion of the paradox between the power and fickleness of language, of what it means to be human, and of how our perceptions color our worldview.
Xu Bing plays incessantly with the role, purpose, and reality of language. Early in his life his father would make him write a page of characters a day, encouraging him to not only copy their form to perfection, but also to capture their spirit, their essence. During Mao's cultural reformations and the reorganization of the standard Chinese language, Xu Bing experienced the constant reformation of words. This constant linguistic change influenced his art: Xu Bing emphasizes the immortality of the essence of language while vividly illustrating the impermanence and capriciousness of words themselves. In this way language becomes malleable and it can be fashioned to either liberate or control. Just as it is nigh impossible to detangle life from politics during the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
era (and its ramifications in decades to follow), Xu Bing also intertwines political messages into his art.
It was not until 2008 that Xu Bing set aside his post-Maoist reactionary art and invested in other topics. For example, he took on environmental projects such as ''Forest Project'', which encouraged the "uninterrupted flow of funds from developed countries to Kenya, earmarked for the planting of new trees." Even so, his focus is always on the effect that environmental issues have on people, such as the villages in
Kenya
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, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
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, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
, not necessarily the effects on the landscape or on the political situation.
At the turn of the millennium, a new defining social pattern emerged after the terrorist attacks in the United States on
9/11
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
, 2001. Tension grew between the West and the Middle East, finally exploding into what was labeled as "the
War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...
." This situation gave rise to social themes of anxiety and hopelessness, which eventually have seeped into the realm of the arts. Even so, some artists like Xu Bing chose to explore the serenity found in the midst of chaos, as illustrated in his work ''Where does the Dust Itself Collect?'' (2004, 2011). For this piece, the artist gathered dust from the aftermath of the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York after September 11, 2001, and uses it to recreate the gray film that covered Manhattan in the weeks following the attacks. Stenciled in the dust, a
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
poem reads, "As there is nothing from the first, where does the dust itself collect?" Using this tragedy as an expression of the human narrative, Xu Bing contemplates the relationship between the material and the spiritual, and he explores "the complicated circumstances created by different world perspectives."
Awards and honors
* ''Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters'',
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, New York (2010)
* Southern Graphics Council ''Lifetime Achievement'' Award (2006)
* International Association of Art Critics Award for "Best Installation or Single Work of Art in a Museum, New England" (2006)
* ''The Youth Friends Award'', New York (2005)
* ''Artes Mundi Prize'' (2004)
* American Academy in Berlin Coca-Cola Fellowship (2004)
*
Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize
The is an award established by the city of Fukuoka and the Fukuoka City International Foundation (formerly The Yokatopia Foundation) to honor the outstanding work of individuals or organizations in preserving or creating Asian culture. There are ...
(2003)
*
MacArthur Award
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...
(1999)
* Pollack Krasner Foundation Prize (1998)
Partial list of works
* ''Lanman Shanhua (Brilliant Mountain Flowers) Magazine'' (1975–1976)
* ''
A Book from the Sky
''A Book from the Sky'' () is the title of a book produced by Chinese artist Xu Bing in the style of fine editions from the Song and Ming dynasties, but filled entirely with meaningless glyphs designed to resemble traditional Chinese characters. ...
'' (1987–1991)
* ''Ghosts Pounding the Wall'' (1990–1991)
* ''A.B.C....'' (1991–1994)
* ''Post Testament'' (1992–1993)
* ''Brailliterate'' (1993)
* ''A Case Study in Transference'' (1994)
* ''Introduction to Square-Word Calligraphy'' (1994–1996)
* ''Oxford Dictionary: Bird Definition'' (1994–1996)
* ''Silkworm Book'' (1995)
* ''Lost Letters'' (1997)
* ''Landscript Postcards'' (1999–2000)
* ''Red Book (Tobacco Project)'' (2000)
* ''Book from the Ground'' (2003-2012)
* ''Ten Thousand Trees'' (2004)
* ''Monkeys Grasping for the Moon'' (2008-ongoing)
* ''Book from the Ground: from point to point'' (2013)
Bibliography
* ''Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground'' (2020). Acc Art Books. .
* ''The Character of Characters: An Animation By Xu Bing'' (2012). Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. .
* ''Xu Bing: Phoenix'' (2016). Thircuir. .
In popular culture
On film
* 2013 - ''
The Enduring Passion for Ink
''The Enduring Passion for Ink: Films on Contemporary Ink Painters'' is a 2013 documentary film independently produced by scholar-curator Britta Erickson. The film features 10 contemporary Chinese ink artists at the vanguard of the contemporary Ch ...
'' by Britta Erickson
References
External links
*
*
Interviewwith Ellen Pearlman in
Brooklyn Rail
''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...
from September 2007
Cornell University Andrew Dickson White Professors-at-Large BiographyInterviewed by Alan Macfarlane and Li Shuo 28 April 2015 (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Bing
1955 births
Living people
Chinese contemporary artists
MacArthur Fellows
People's Republic of China calligraphers
Artists from Chongqing
Central Academy of Fine Arts alumni
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Central Academy of Fine Arts faculty
Cornell University faculty