Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Art in China in the 1960s and 1970s

(from 15th Apr 2011 until 15th Jan 2012)

Explore woodblock prints and ink paintings from around the period of the Cultural Revolution in China.

Detail of Dancing: Highland Barley Series No. 2, China, 1961 (Museum no. EA2007.80)
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Spring Outing

  • Description

    After the Cultural Revolution, artists regained the freedom to depict daily scenes without any political content. The period after 1977 has been described as the ‘Spring of arts and literature’, and this print depicts people sightseeing in Spring. Wang Qi is one of the first generation of modern Chinese printmakers. He was chief editor of the journals Meishu ('Art') and Banhua ('Prints') and was Chairman of the Chinese Printmakers’ Association. With mostly monochrome and finely cut images, his highly realistic prints vividly reflect the transformations of modern China since the late 1930s.

  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia China (place of creation)
    Date
    1979
    Artist/maker
    Wang Qi (born 1918) (printmaker)
    Material and technique
    woodcut, printed with oil-based ink
    Dimensions
    mount 40.6 x 55.9 cm (height x width)
    sheet 30.4 x 48.7 cm (height x width)
    print 22 x 41 cm max. (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Purchased, 2007.
    Accession no.
    EA2007.58
  • Further reading

    Weimin He, and Shelagh Vainker, Chinese Prints 1950-2006 in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2007), no. 51 on p. 61, illus. p. 61

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Chinese Prints 1950-2006 in the Ashmolean Museum by Weimin He and Shelagh Vainker

    Chinese Prints 1950-2006 in the Ashmolean Museum

    I regard bigger (political) subject matter as important, but I do not disregard minor subject matter. No matter what the subject of a work, it must primarily be lively and able to move people.

    In 1937 Wang Qi graduated from the Shanghai School of Fine Arts where he studied Western painting. From 1938 he worked as art teacher and editor, successively in Wuhan, Yan’an, Chongqing, Nanjing, Hong Kong and Shanghai, until he transferred to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1949. He was chief editor of the journals Meishu (Art) and Banhua (Prints) and was Chairman of the Chinese Printmakers’ Association. With mostly monochrome and finely cut images, his highly realistic prints vividly reflect the transformation of modern China’s history since 1950. Wang is the author of numerous articles and books on art history and theory.
Notice

Objects from past exhibitions may have now returned to our stores or a lender. Click into an individual object record to confirm whether or not an object is currently on display. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis, so please contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular Eastern Art object.

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