Tag: prints

Jian-Jun Zhang in ‘Contemporary Chinese Prints’ at PacePrints

Riffing on Mao’s famous injunction to ‘Let the past serve the present,’ Chinese artist Jian-Jun Zhang presents traditional but damaged Chinese vase forms in silicone rubber, selling an updated version of ‘authentic’ national heritage. (At Pace Prints, 57th Street, through April 12th.)

Jian-Jun Zhang, vases from the ‘Vestiges of a Process’ series, silicone rubber, 2007 & 2011, and detail from ‘Flowing Water,’ 40 x 29 inches, set of five, unique monoprints.

Xu Bing in ‘Ink Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beijing-based artist Xu Bing is a star of the Met’s excellent ‘Ink Art’ exhibition, which features important work by prominent Chinese artists of the past few decades who have maintained a link with China’s traditional calligraphic and painting traditions. Here, Xu’s Book from the Sky submerses visitors in a sea of Chinese characters (with over a thousand unique variations) yet comes to question tradition and the relay of information by the fact that all are illegible. (At the Metropolitan Museum of Art through April 6th).

Xu Bing, Book from the Sky, ca 1987-91, installation of hand-printed books and ceiling and wall scrolls printed from wood letterpress type; ink on paper.