Xu Bing

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Xu Bing (2011)

Xu Bing , ( Chinese  徐冰 , Pinyin Xú Bīng ; * 1955 in Chongqing ) is a Chinese conceptual artist who is best known for his works in the areas of printmaking and calligraphy , but also for installations . He is Vice President of the Central University of the Arts (ZHK) in Beijing. His installation Book from the Sky , which was exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China exhibition, is considered a major work of contemporary Chinese art.

Life

Xu Bing grew up in Beijing. In 1977 he began to study art at the ZHK with a focus on printmaking, which he completed in 1987 with a master's degree. During this time, his works were exhibited worldwide. From 1981 on he taught drawing at the ZHK. In 1987 he began work on A Book from the Sky , his best-known work, a section of which was first exhibited at the China National Museum of Fine Arts in 1988 . In the same year he was a visiting artist at the Art Academy in Paris. In 1990 he accepted an invitation from the University of Wisconsin – Madison as an honorary member of the faculty and then settled in the USA. In 1992 he stayed in Vermillion (South Dakota) and studied western methods of bookbinding and papermaking. In 1993 he moved to the East Village in Manhattan . In 1999 he was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant for his artistic achievements, particularly in the areas of print and calligraphy . In the same year his works were shown in Germany at the Museum Ludwig and the Museum Bonn . He himself also visited the Himalayas that year, where, in addition to mountain hikes, he also began working on his Landscript series. In 2003, the work of Xu Bing became the subject of a conference at Princeton University , the results of which were published in 2006 under the title Persistence-transformation: text as image in the art of Xu Bing . In 2007, Xu Bing was appointed Vice President of the ZHK. In 2008, Xu Bing lectured at various universities around the world, including The Art Institute of Boston . He served as a juror for the third Artes Mundi Prize. A graduate seminar on the art of Xu Bing took place at Columbia University . In 2009, Xu Bing curated the retrospective of the ZHK Central Academy of Fine Arts 60 Years of Drawing , which attracted a lot of media attention and was voted the best exhibition of the year in China by Artron.net. In 2010, the Museum of Modern Art acquired prints from Xu Bing. The Columbia University gave the artist an honorary doctorate. In 2017 Xu Bing shows his first feature film Dragonfly at the 70th Locarno Film Festival .

Books by Xu Bing as works of art

Wiki as an English word in the style of the Square Word Calligraphy project

Xu Bing created his Book from the sky , a collection of book scrolls and classic books , between 1987 and 1991 . These are all printed with characters that look deceptively similar to Chinese characters, but were invented by the artist himself and have no legible meaning. For this project, Xu Bing invented over 4,000 characters, which he carved into wooden stamps by hand. In contrast , the Book from the ground , completed in 2002, consists of characters that everyone can interpret, namely emojis . Square Word Calligraphy is a project that can be understood as a transition between these two works of art . Xu Bing arranged the letters of English words in such a way that they look like Chinese characters.

Exhibitions (selection)

Detail of a phoenix sculpture by Xu Bing at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Prices (selection)

  • 2003 Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize
  • 2004 Wales International Visual Art Prize, Artes Mundi
  • 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Graphics Council in recognition of its “ use of text, language and books (that) has impacted the dialogue of the print and art worlds in significant ways. ”(German:“ Dealing with text, language and books, which has influenced the dialogue between the worlds of printing and art in a relevant way. ”)
  • 2014 Department of State-Medal of Arts for efforts to instill cultural understanding through his artwork.
  • 2015 de FINE art honoree of the Savannah College of Art and Design .

Publications

literature

Web links

Commons : Xu Bing  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carol Vogel: Phoenixes Rise in China and float in New York. The New York Times, February 14, 2014, accessed May 23, 2015 .
  2. ^ Book from the Ground. The MIT press, accessed May 18, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China. The Written Word: Book from the Sky. Metropolitan Museum of Art , accessed May 23, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Xu Bing: Biography. (No longer available online.) Xu Bing, archived from the original on May 25, 2015 ; accessed on May 22, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Stav Ziv: Chinese Artist Xu Bing's Book Without Borders. Newsweek, March 1, 2015, accessed May 22, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Xu Bing
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese concept artist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Chongqing