Cleveland collects 4 MET Award Prints
Clarissa von Spee
The Cleveland Museum of Art recently acquired prints by Li Yuxuan, Xu Zhonghong and Qu Zuochun to help promoting a new generation of Chinese printmakers whose works will bring more visibility and diversity in geography and gender to the museum’s reknown prints and drawings collection.
克利夫兰艺术博物馆购藏了李雨萱、徐中宏和瞿作纯的版画，以帮助促进新一代中国版画家的创作，这些作品将为博物馆驰名的版画素描收藏带来艺术家在地区及性别上的彰显性及多样性。
Li Yuxuan 李雨萱, Biodiversity 《万物生-蜉二》, 16x18cm, 2019
Li Yuxuan was born in 1991, studied at Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts and received her MA from there. The Sichuan Academy of Fine Art is traditionally known for its monochrome woodcuts of remarkable refinement and detail. In continuing the institution’s legacy, Li’s prints are exquisite, small and cut with intriguing detail.
李雨萱出生于1991年，就读于四川美术学院，并在那里获得硕士学位。四川美术学院传统上以其精致细腻的单色木刻而闻名。李雨萱的版画与川美的传统一脉相承，它们精美无比、小巧生动、充满奇妙的细节。
In these two prints, Li Yuxuan creates the silhouette of an insect cut out in delicate lines from a small wooden block. Indentations create a pointillist texture that sets the insect against what looks like a diffusion of light. The image provokes the association with insects caught and preserved millions of years ago in semi-transparent amber. Biodiversity points to our heritage of nature and a fragile ecosystem.
在这两幅版画中，李雨萱用小块硬木以细腻的线条刻划出昆虫的轮廓。以细点刻出的肌理充满质感，用作昆虫的背景，看起来犹如扩散的光线。这一图像让人联想起内含昆虫化石的半透明的琥珀，那些数百万年前被捕获并因此被保存下来的昆虫标本。《万物生》旨在反映自然界的遗产承传以及我们脆弱的生态系统。
Xu Zhonghong 徐中宏, Gloves – Mission II《手套·使命Ⅱ》，90X120cm，2018
Xu Zhonghong graduated from the Yunnan Academy of Fine Arts. Gloves Mission 2 is a monumental sheet print impressed in photographic detail from plywood that here substituted the traditional wood block of limiting size, allowing the artist to achieve a larger print format. The print depicts in photographic detail a worn off working glove reflecting the work of a human who – as the title suggests – was on a rescue mission – exposed to harsh conditions and a rough environment that stressed the material to a breaking point, perhaps also pointing to the wearer’s physical and mental state of exhaustion.
徐忠宏毕业于云南美术学院。《手套-使命II》是一幅巨大的版画，艺术家使用胶合板刻印，其细节如同照片般真实，让人印象至深。这里，艺术家打破了木刻版画尺幅限制的传统，达到了巨幅的效果。版画以照相的细节描绘了磨损的工作手套，反映出人类的工作及使命（正如标题所示），仿佛正在执行救援任务。手套残损破旧，反映出工作的艰苦及环境的恶劣，可能也反映出手套主人疲惫的身心。
Qu Zuochun 瞿作纯, Time Lapse 4《时光叠变系列之四》, 92×90cm, 2019
Qu Zuochun graduated from Guangzhou Art Academy. Time Lapse belongs to a series of prints of large geometric forms built up in painstakingly applied overlayered impressions of black ink. This composition of two upright rectangular geometric forms impressed on paper in shades of ink create the effect of three dimensionality and light falling through a gap, perhaps conveying the message that time is as fugitive as light.
瞿作纯毕业于广州美术学院，《时光叠变》是系列大型几何图形版画中的一幅，这些版画都是用黑色油墨层层叠印，精心制作。这幅版画由两个直立的矩形几何形状组成，油墨的印痕的产生出不同层次的阴影，具有一种三维立体的效果，光线从缝隙中透过。也许艺术家想表达的，是时间过隙，如同光线一样短暂。
(Chinese translation: Haiyao Zheng)
Clarissa von Spee, PhD 史明理 Chair of Asian Art and James and Donna Reid Curator of Chinese Art © Howard Agriesti, courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art