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)
Dancingfront

© The artist

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Dancing

  • Description

    This print depicts Tibetan peasants in a harvest procession carrying Mao’s portrait. Zhao Zongzao graduated from the Fine Art Department of Nanjing University and worked in the China National Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou for four decades. His work was mostly associated with politics and used various art forms. Since the early 1980s his woodcuts have turned to the portrayal of southern landscape, using water-soluble ink.

  • Details

    show all
    Series
    Highland Barley
    Associated place
    Asia › China (place of creation)
    Asia › Tibet (subject)
    Date
    1961
    Artist/maker
    Zhao Zongzao (born 1931) (printmaker)
    Associated people
    Mao Zedong (Chairman Mao) (1893 - 1976) (subject)
    Material and technique
    multi-block woodcut, printed with oil-based ink
    Dimensions
    mount 60.8 x 81.1 cm (height x width)
    sheet 50.8 x 58.3 cm (height x width)
    print 35 x 42.2 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    printed › relief print › woodcut › colour woodcut
    Object type index
    visual representation › print
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Purchased, 2007.
    Accession no.
    EA2007.80

  • Further reading

    Weimin He, and Shelagh Vainker, Chinese Prints 1950-2006 in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2007), no. 32 on p. 40, p. xii, illus. p. 40

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

    My Highland Barley series is based on what I experienced in Tibet during the 1950s and 1960s. It depicts the Tibetan peasants' immersion in a free and happy life, and their hopes for a future in which Tibet has cast off slavery and embraced communalization.

    Zhao Zongzao graduated from the Fine Art Department of Nanjing University. He began making woodcuts in 1950. In 1955, he was appointed to the faculty of the Huadong branch of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (now called The China National Academy of Fine Arts). Zhao’s official positions have included the vice-presidency of the Academy and vice-chairmanship of the Chinese Printmakers’ Association. Before the 1980s, his work was mostly associated with political influence and used various art forms. Benefiting from his calligraphy and ink painting skills, his woodcuts since the early 1980s have turned to the depiction of landscape, printed with water-soluble ink.
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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