China's diversity is revealed in luminous photographs by Hiroji Kubota, in which vibrant emblems of the country's rural past converge with intimate views of present-day life, and in the panoramic landscapes of Lois Conner, resonant with allusions to ancient art forms. Chinese artists Xiao-Ming Li, Zhang Hai-er, and Wang Jinsong explore aspects of contemporary life through religious practices, popular culture, and the proud accumulation of household possessions. Chinese-Americans Reagan Louie, Mark Leong, and Richard Yee use photography as a medium to understand their parents' native land--and in the process, their own identities as artists and world citizens. In Sebastião Salgado's photographs of Shanghai we see the convergence of old and new on a grand scale, while Zheng Nong focuses on yet another aspect of China's modernization: the polarizing effects of rapid urban and industrial growth. These themes and more are further explored in photographs by Eve Arnold, David Butow, Macduff Everton, Stuart Franklin, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Antonin Kratochvil, Liu Heung Shing, Brian Palmer, Wu Jialin, and Xu Jinyan.
Rae Yang complements these magnificent photographs in her essay, "This Is Our China." Born in 1950 to a respected family in Beijing, Yang was a member of the Red Guards before completing her undergraduate education and emigrating to the United States, where she is currently Chair of the East Asian Studies Program at Dickinson College. Her moving account illuminates the cultural, political, and economic contexts of life in China over the last fifty years.
A major traveling exhibition organized by Aperture will open at the Asia Society in New York City in October 1999. The show will tour throughout the world, including venues in China. In North America, the exhibition will travel to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; The Minneapolis Institute of the Arts in Minnesota; the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida; the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., among other venues.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE:
(as of May 26, 1999)
North American Tour
Asia Society
New York
October 8, 1999–January 2, 2000
Royal Ontario Museum
Ontario, Canada
January 15, 2000–March 26, 2000
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Minneapolis, Minnesota
December 10, 2000 – March 4, 2001
Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes di Napoli
Naples, Italy
July-August 2001
Lowe Art Museum
University of Miami
Coral Gables, Florida
September 18–November 17, 2002
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D. C.
February 22–May 16, 2004
China Tour
National Museum of Chinese History
Beijing
December 12, 1999-January 23, 2000
Guangdong Museum of Art
Guangzhou
January 2000
Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art
Shanghai
April-May 2000
For more information on the itinerary of the exhibition, please call Aperture's Traveling Exhibitions Coordinator:
(212) 505-5555, ext. 327.
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