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

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

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Lu Xun

  • loan
  • Description

    Ding Cong (1916-2009) was a cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic artist. Before the Second World War (1939-1945) and after 1949 he edited pictorial magazines. During the war he travelled extensively in west China. He became friends with Khoan (1919-2003) and Michael Sullivan (1916-2013) in Chengdu, Sichuan province, where he gave the Sullivans a number of his drawings. It was in the war years that Ding Cong matured as a graphic artist. This drawing was produced by Ding Cong in 1977, depicting Lu Xun (1881-1936), a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. Ding Cong inscribed the drawing and gave it to Khoan and Michael in 1979, when the couple were visiting Beijing after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The inscription reads ‘To old friends Lao Mai [Michael] and Khoan. Xiaoding. October 1979 in Beijing.’ They had not seen each other for more than 30 years, since their last meeting in Chengdu. Ding Cong and Michael met again in 1980 at the dinner arranged by the Chinese Artists’ Association and he signed the menu with other artist friends of Michael’s. Michael kept this menu for the rest of his life as another token of the friendship between him and his artist friends.

  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia China (place of creation)
    AsiaChinaHebei province Beijing (place of creation)
    Date
    1977
    inscription 1979
    Artist/maker
    Ding Cong (1916 - 2009) (artist)
    Associated people
    Lu Xun (1881 - 1936) (subject)
    Khoan Sullivan (1919 - 2003) (recipient)
    Michael Sullivan (1916 - 2013) (recipient)
    Material and technique
    ink on paper
    Dimensions
    painting 31.3 x 20 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    On loan from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection.
    Accession no.
    LI2022.382
  • Further reading

    Sullivan, Michael, Modern Chinese Art: The Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection, revised edn (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2009), no. 25 on p. 69, illus. p.69 fig. II.25

    Sullivan, Michael, Art and Artists of Twentieth Century China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), p. 80, illus. p. 81 fig 8.1

Glossary

Ding

  • Ding

    A Chinese bronze tripod ritual cooking vessel. Also a type of white porcelain from Northern China.

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

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