Investigation and Interpretation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - Coursework Example

Investigation and Interpretation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Introduction A work of art can be defined as a creative and imaginative piece that an artist creates. This can be done in various ways depending on the mood or the meaning of the piece. In china, art, or rather painting has always had a rigid way of being done, and that is by ink. However, in the last three decades some artists from china have decided to challenge and modify traditional Chinese art by sabotaging their sources. There is a major exhibition in the contemporary china done by the metropolitan museum of art. It is called ink art: past and present in contemporary china. Seventy pieces of art have been displayed so far by up to thirty five artists. The pieces include paintings, calligraphy, photographs, woodblock prints, video and sculpture. The metropolitan museum has deceived these pieces into the written word, new landscapes, abstraction and lastly, beyond the brush. This article is going to analyze the works of three Chinese artists. These artists include Li Huasheng, Xu Bing and Song Dong. Moreover, this article is going to compare their works to find the differences, similarities, themes and composition. In addition, this article will talk about the artist’s philosophies and careers1. . Body Li Huasheng hang scrolls (grids) 1944 Li Huasheng also known as Hanyu Pinyin is a Chinese artist born in 1944. He comes from Sichuan province in Yibin, china. Li Huasheng trained in traditional Chinese art under an artist by the name Chen. This was in the year 1972 and it took less than four years for him to master the traditional Chinese art. He is regarded as the personification of modern Chinese art. For this recognition he was awarded membership of the Sichuan academy of fine art. Li Huasheng is a hard willed, independent and stubborn man. This is because Li was a successful artist in painting landscapes and figures but left abruptly in 1998 to produce grids like collection 0669 in the museum. He was a defiant individual who wished to express himself in his own way and not the traditional way. His grids consist of long, straight lines which have consistency in thickness. The most amazing part is that his drawings are done freehand, which is a long tiring and extremely difficult task. To execute such art, it would mean that the artist must have excellent brush control and high concentration levels. His latest collection, which is collection 0669, was done in 20052. Xu Bing 1955 hanging scrolls, (the song of the wandering aengus) Xu Bing was born in 1955 in china but has been living in the United States. Currently, he is the president of the central academy of fine arts. Xu Bing is an artist who specializes in installations, calligraphy and prints. Furthermore, he uses language, words and texts creatively to bring meaning to his pieces. In the recent years Xu Bing has moved to metal work, landscaping, digital and virtual mediums and live installation. Xu Bing latest collection in the museum is collection called the song of the wandering aengus by William butler Yeats. In this piece of art, Xu Bing has used Yeats poem and written it using the traditional Chinese calligraphy. The piece is written vertically and read from the left to right. In this piece, Xu Bing has shaken the linguistic boundaries between the east and west. In order to achieve this, Xu Bing has divided the poem into two unlike Yeats who had stanzas consisting of eight lines. Moreover, Xu Bing has changed the words to Chinese characters. Song Dong 1966printing on water, (performance in the Lhasa River, Tibet 1966) Song Dong is a modern Chinese sculpture who is also involved in installations, performance, video and photography. He was born in 1966 in Beijing. Song had a passion for painting and started experimenting with oil painting at an early age. He graduated in 1989 and soon after his marriage he decided to try experimental art, which is performance and video. Song Dongs latest collection was done in 1996, the thirty six chromogenic prints. The chromogenic prints are widely known as Shui or the Chinese word for water. Song dong did this painting in the Lhasa River in Tibet by taking one hour stomping the water with a large wood seal. Apart from it being a painting art, it was also a performance. At the metropolitan museum it is called the promised gift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky. Comparison of their works Similarities The works of the three Chinese artists, Li Huasheng, Xu Bing and Song Dong are similar in many ways. Firstly, they both broke out of traditional Chinese art which uses ink and calligraphy. These three artists have gone into different kinds of art. Li Huasheng uses grids; Xu Bing uses calligraphy of the highest order to translate English to Chinese characters while song dong uses water printing. It is evident that these three artists are independent minded and have strong characters to even think of straying to other experimental fields and succeeding. Secondly, these three Chinese artists use the same themes to express themselves in their artistic pieces. They all use the theme of modernity in their works. They use modern tools like metal works, video and digital performances. However, they have mixed tradition with modernity for example Xu Bing uses Chinese calligraphy to break down boundaries between east and west although it is high class calligraphy status. On the other hand, song dong uses an old Chinese metal plate to make the Shui painting on water3. Lastly, these three Chinese artists have the same composition, in that they all have modern touch to their pieces. They have all done artistic pieces while in deep meditation for example Li’s grids and songs water printing. For their hard work all these artists have been awarded and recognized for example, Xu Bing is the president of the central academy of fine arts; Li Huasheng has been awarded an honorary membership of the Sichuan academy of fine art, while Song Dong has been awarded a UNESCO/ASCHBERG Bursary Laureate in the year 2000. Differences Despite being contemporary artists of Chinese descent, they have their differences. For example, the sizes of their pieces are very different. The painting done on a metal plate by song dong is larger than the rest which are smaller in size. Furthermore, the metal plate is heavier than the other pieces which are lighter. The medium in which the artists have portrayed their pieces are also very different. Li Huasheng and Xu Bing use paper, while song dong uses metal plate. Also the difference in types of delivery is evidence in that Li uses grids, Xu uses Chinese calligraphy and song uses water printing on a metal plate4. Conclusion Art is an interesting and unique way of expressing ones thoughts. China has had a rigid way of doing art but in the recent past Chinese artists have diverged form this traditional way to modern contemporary ways of doing art. This has seen the evolution of video, digital, water printing and high class calligraphy to do art instead of the traditional paper and ink art in calligraphy. This article has analyzed the works of three famous Chinese artists, Li Huasheng, Xu Bing and Song Dong. These artists have broken boundaries from the traditional Chinese art to modern art which ahs seen Li use grids on paper, Xu uses high end calligraphy to decipher English poems to Chinese characters and song uses water to print on a metal plate. These three artists from Chinese descent have similarities in that they use the same theme to portray their arts; they also use the same composition. Furthermore, the three artists have been awarded modern recognition and are very famous. Despite the fact that all these three are modern artists, they have their differences, in that they use different mediums to represent their art. They all use different sizes in their art which also have different weights. Bibliography Hearn, Maxwell K., and Wu Hung. 2013. Ink art: past as present in contemporary China. Sullivan, Michael. 1996. Art and artists of twentieth century China. Berkeley [u.a.]: Univ. of California Press. Yiu, Josh. 2009. Writing modern Chinese art: historiographic explorations. Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum. Read More