Publisher's Synopsis
Distributed by University Press of Florida on behalf of Asia Society Texas
Born
in China and now working in both Brooklyn and Beijing, artist Xu Bing
is widely considered to be one of the most important artists to emerge
from China in the 20th century. Focusing on the artist's longstanding
engagement with words and language, Word Alchemy was the most
comprehensive exhibition on this theme so far, and approximately
one-third of the objects in the exhibition are being shown in the U.S.
for the first time.
Published on the occasion of this landmark
exhibition at Asia Society Texas, this catalogue assembles more than 50
of Xu Bing's most important woodcut prints, videos, drawings,
installations, and other ephemera representing almost 50 years of the
artist's creative output. Starting with Xu's early engagements with
social realism and Western art historical traditions alike, the
exhibition charts the evolution of the artist's linguistic experiments
that challenge and expand not only the history of Chinese landscape
painting, but the canons of contemporary art.
Highlights of the
book include a new essay by Xu Bing, an interview between the artist and
curator Susan L. Beningson, as well as several newly commissioned
essays by the field's leading scholars and curators. The volume features
vivid reproductions of Xu Bing's early works, never-before-exhibited
notebooks, landmark prints including the Series of Repetitions handscroll, a new Background Story with a connection to Zhao Mengfu's famous Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains handscroll, a new Texas-themed Square Word Calligraphy, and a new installation of Monkeys Grasp for the Moon in Asia Society Texas' Fayez Sarofim Grand Hall.
