Mountain Village in the Fall, 1980.

The San Diego Museum of Man announces its first new exhibition opening in the New Year. People, Prints, & Politics: China 1920-1980, Woodblock Prints of Xian Rang Yong opened to the public on March 29. 2008. This exhibition features the work of the distinguished Chinese artist and scholar Xian Rang Yong from Shandong Province. Professor Yong implements the Chinese art of woodblock printing to create compelling portraits, landscapes, depictions of cultural activities, and political posters. His versatile style and broad aesthetic will inspire Museum visitors and provide them with cultural perspective on China, the host country of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The exhibition precedes the Chinese folk art exhibition planned for 2010.

Xian Rang Yong, a professor of art, enrolled in the Department of Art at the Peking State Art School in 1948 and graduated from the Department of Paintings at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1952. He was the editor at the People’s Art Publishing House from 1952 to 1958, and he served in the Research Office of the Ministry of Culture from 1958 to 1960. For the next 20 years, Professor Yong was an instructor at the Department of Woodcuts at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. From 1980 to 1986, he served as Dean of the Department of Folk Art. The China Art Gallery held an exhibition of his work in 1982. He has lectured and held exhibitions in the United States and Korea, and had a 50-year retrospective exhibition in China in 2006. His publications include Selected Woodcuts of Xian Rang Yong, Fourteen Journeys to the Yellow River—Observations on Folk Art, Chinese Folk Art, Selected Works of Chinese Folk Modern Painting, Collected Works of Xian Rang Yong, and Essays on Art.

Sewing a Book Bag, 1961.