In celebration of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s 80th anniversary, the museum is raising donations to acquire Chinese artist Xiaoze Xie’s “Order (The Red Guards)” for its permanent collection.
The work would enhance the JSMA’s historic Chinese collection, build cross-cultural connections with international contemporary art and support the teaching and training of UO students, the museum said.
In 2011, “Order” was featured in the traveling exhibition “Xiaoze Xie: Amplified Moments,” a retrospective of paintings, installations and videos produced by Xie between 1993 and 2008. Currently on loan from the artist, the piece is on view in the JSMA’s Soreng Gallery of Chinese art.
Born in Guangdong in 1966, Xie is one of today’s most prominent America-based Chinese contemporary artists. As a student in his homeland in the 1980s, he had intended to pursue a career in architecture but was compelled to shift to painting as a result of the violent military response to the June 4, 1989, student protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
The installation piece that the JSMA hopes to acquire is comprised of a monumental hanging scroll emblazoned with a roughly brushed image documenting the destruction of books during China’s Cultural Revolution, which occurred between 1966 and 1976. The scroll extends ten feet down the wall and then two feet across the floor.
“Xie’s work deftly re-appropriates aspects of traditional Chinese art and combines them with selected Western influences and modern political subject matter to produce a thought-provoking installation that encourages viewers to meditate on the vulnerability of historical memory,” said Anne Rose Kitagawa, chief curator.
“We’d love to keep this work in Eugene,” added Executive Director Jill Hartz. “Our staff and visitors fell in love with it when it was here a few years ago, both because it’s a fantastic work of art and because it connects our past with our vision for today and tomorrow.”
If you would like to receive information about how to help the JSMA acquire this work, contact Chloe Hellberg at chloe@uoregon.edu or call 541-346-0974.
- from the UO Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art