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Woodblock Prints of Xian Rang Yong
People, Prints, & Politics: China 1920-1980
Now Open on the South Balcony
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Autumn Harvest, 1980.
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The Museum of Man’s newest exhibition for the year is People, Prints, & Politics: China 1920–1980, Woodblock Prints of Xian Rang Yong. The prints represent three themes. The first is farming landscapes, which highlight Yong’s artistic skill and emphasize his exquisite ability to represent the light of farmland in northern China, the subject of his early works. The second theme is people—from mine workers to soldiers to family members to political figures, Yong captures the spirit and realism of his countrymen and women in amazingly expressive prints and portraits. The third theme is politics—Yong communicates the changing political climate of China through poignant and dramatic scenes highlighting cultural and historic moments throughout the years.
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The exhibition features forty woodblock prints, some of them framed originals and some digital reproductions, with explanatory text panels. Yong’s versatile style and broad aesthetics lend depth to his interpretations. As a native ethnographer, one who studies his or her own culture, Yong offers insight into his homeland through his masterful skill.
Yong is a highly esteemed artist, educator, and scholar from the Shandong Peninsula, China. He is recognized as an accomplished wood-engraving artist in his country, where he studied at 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 worked as editor at the People’s Art Publishing House from 1952 to 1958 and in the Research Office of the Ministry of Culture from 1958 to 1960. He served as an instructor at the Department of Woodcuts at the Central Academy of Fine Arts from 1960 to 1980 and as Dean of the Department of Folk Art from 1980 to 1986.
Yong’s former exhibitions include the China Art Gallery in 1982, lectures and exhibitions in the United States and Korea, and a fifty-year retrospective exhibition in China in 2006. Among his publications are Fourteen Journeys to the Yellow River, 2003; Chinese Folk Art, 1999; Analyses of Chinese Minority Fashions, 1994; Chinese Folk Art—Paper Cut, 1991; and numerous miscellaneous research papers.
A specialist in Chinese folk art, Yong collaborated with his daughter, Yang Yong, an artist in her own right, to create a folk art exhibition which will be featured at the Museum of Man in 2010. Meanwhile, Yong’s work in People, Prints, & Politics inspires, and it provides cultural perspective on China, the host country of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
People, Prints, & Politics: China 1920-1980, Woodblock Prints of Xian Rang Yong opened to the public on March 29 and will be on view through October 19, 2008.
—Cyndi Eischen, Director of Interpretation and Education
Return to People, Prints, & Politics exhibition page.
Media Sponsor:
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NBC 7/39
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Sponsored by:
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City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture
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County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program
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© San Diego Museum of Man
1350 El Prado, Balboa
Park • San Diego, CA
92101 • (619) 239-2001
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