Contemporary Public Art in China

Download or read book Contemporary Public Art in China written by John T. Young and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young introduces us to examples of portrait art featuring political figures, such as the famous collaborative marble carving of Mao Zedong in the Memorial Hall at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and others that depict anonymous subjects, such as Situ Zhaoguang's playful sculpture - located on a Beijing traffic island amid busy streets - of a girl engrossed in reading a book, plugging her ears to the noise. China's rich ethnic culture is evident in works such as Yuan Yunsheng's mural at the Beijing airport, portraying the Dai people's Water Splashing Festival (whose nude bather was censored until recently and covered over by plywood). Folklore serves as the inspiration for works such as the collaborative granite sculpture Five Rams in Guangzhou, while historical figures and events from imperial China are the subjects of many works, such as Silk Road, a massive sculpture by Ma Gaihu and others marking the Chinese end of the ancient trade route.