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Acclaimed Chinese artist Xu Bing to visit campus

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Xu Bing, an internationally renowned printmaker and installation artist, will visit campus next week as part of “A Year of Chinese Art” series, sponsored by 51Թ’s Institute for Creative and Performing Arts.

In addition to Xu’s public lecture Monday at Golden Auditorium, seniors from the university’s studio arts community will have a unique opportunity to collaborate with him as he critiques their senior projects.

xu bing tobacco project
This work by Xu Bing is titled “Tobacco Project.”

“Xu Bing’s visit is a rare and wonderful opportunity for our students, and it’s also a perfect example of how 51Թ integrates the arts into the fabric of the university,” said associate professor of art and art history DeWitt Godfrey, director of the .

Xu’s work will be included in the Picker Art Gallery’s Woodcuts in Modern China, 1937-2008: Towards a Universal Pictorial Language , scheduled to open in December. In January, the Clifford Gallery will host a solo exhibition of his work.

“A Year of Chinese Art” is supported through the generosity of Robert H. N. Ho ’56 in honor of Theodore Herman, professor of geography emeritus.

The series draws upon the university’s resources, contributions by contemporary Chinese artists, and scholars of Chinese arts and culture at 51Թ and neighboring institutions.

Assistant professor of art and art history Carolyn Guile, curator of Xu’s exhibition at the Clifford, said “the series offers an unprecedented opportunity for the campus community and for area residents to experience China’s burgeoning contemporary art scene and explore its traditions.”

EVENTS


Lecture by Xu Bing

Monday, Nov. 10, 4:30 p.m., Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
Xu talks about his work.

Jerome Silbergeld, Eric Ryan Memorial Lecture
Wednesday, Nov. 12, 4:30 pm, Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
“Curatorial Strategy, Bull Marketry, and the Defining of Contemporary Chinese Art”
Silbergeld is the P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Professor of Chinese Art History and director of the Tang Center for East Asian Art at Princeton University.

Film screening, Shijie (2004)
Thursday, Nov. 13, 7 pm, Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
Written and directed by Zhang Ke Jia
An exploration on the impact of urbanization and globalization on a traditional culture, this film will be introduced by Silbergeld.

“Mission and Madness: The Graphic Imagination of Shanghai’s “Modern Sketch” (1934-1937)”
Dec. 1 – March 3, 2009, Loesch Special Collections and Archives, Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology
The three-year run of Modern Sketch (Shidai manhua) defined the golden era of Shanghai’s comic art during the mid-1930s. The illustrations displayed for the exhibit are drawn from the nearly complete set of over thirty issues of Modern Sketch now housed in Case-Geyer Library’s Loesch Special Collections.

Exhibition: “Woodcuts in Modern China, 1937-2008: Towards a Universal Pictorial Language”
Dec. 2, 2008 – April 26, 2009, Picker Art Gallery
Opening reception, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.,
Spring reception, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 4:30-7 p.m.
Exhibition showcases 62 woodblock prints that introduce artists and artistic concepts that are fundamental to the understanding of modern and contemporary art in China

Exhibition: “Reading Space: The Art of Xu Bing”
Jan. 19 – March 5, 2009, Clifford Gallery
Opening reception, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 4:30 – 7 p.m.

Gao Minglu
Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009, 4:30 p.m., Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
Professor in the Department of Art History and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh, Gao has been an active critic, curator, and scholar of contemporary Chinese art since the mid-1980s in both the United States and China. His work explores the relationship between Chinese tradition and international art movements.

Zhang Minjie
TBD March 2009
Zhang is the director of the Chinese National Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, and one of China’s most influential contemporary printmakers. His woodblock reduction prints are featured in the exhibition “Woodcuts in Modern China, 1937-2008.”