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Rural Life: Celebrating Chinese
Peasant Women's Art
Saturday, February 2–Sunday, March 2, 2008
Selected Works:
Picking Out Ginseng | view
Potato Harvest | view
A Girl Riding a Rooster | view
A Mouse Stealing Grapes | view
Artist's Statement
In rural China, women play an important role as artists in addition to their other roles as mothers, wives, caretakers of the elderly, and agricultural laborers who make up 60 percent of all fieldworkers. In the past, these artists were often anonymous. But today, many have become well-known and respected, and their works are eagerly collected.
After the Peasant Revolution of 1947, Chinese peasant art was often used for political propaganda celebrating Communist rule. Today, this art is enjoying a renaissance and has shed its political slant. Instead, it depicts the simple joys of everyday life in the country.
The works in this exhibition are from the provinces of Jiangsu, Shanxi, Fujian, Liaoning, Jiling, and Yunan and the capital city of Beijing. Although the geographic area covered is vast, the paintings share a bright palette, unique compositions, and cheerful decoration, reflecting the simplicity of people who live far from the complexities of big city life.
The Asian American Women Artists Alliance and the Beijing Chinese Peasant Art Exhibition Committee have collaborated to bring Contemporary Chinese Peasant Art to New York City for the first time. The works at the Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery were selected from the 2006 Chinese National Peasant Exhibition at the Beijing National Museum. The exhibit will tour the New York City area from February to April 2008.
