Dancing On and Beneath the Great Wall

Sixteen works by the Chinese artist Zhang Minjie (born 1959)

Zhang Minjie, "Dancing on and beneath the Great Wall no. 1," 1992 Waste-block woodcut printed with oil-based inks From the pint-sized (6.5" x 9.5", 158 pp) but powerful book Chinese Prints 1950–2006 in the Ashmolean Museum by Weimin He and Shelagh Vainker:"Zhang Minjie began to produce stage art in 1975 for a troupe of actors based in Fengnan. He was injured in the great Tangshan earthquake of 1976, and on his recovery, returned to the troupe as an actor. He studied printmaking in the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts from 1988 to 1990, then he worked as a printmaker at the Qinhaungdao Mass Arts Centre. He is now head of the Visual Art College at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou. His work spans a wide range of media, including lithography, woodcuts, oil painting and sculpture. Influenced by his stage career, Zhang specializes in creating stage scenes on a grand scale, showing psychological effects in a whimsical manner." This book also quotes the artist: "With limited props, the art of Chinese traditional drama accomplishes the recapitulation of unlimited time, space and plot. I admire and often ponder over this realm." An exhibit press release makes an intriguing suggestion: "It is thought that the imagery used in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics was derived largely from Minjie's vision of Chinese history and the Chinese people." I didn't keep track of what I was doing when rooting around for these images (only the first image is included in the book); I do know that it took me many days to source good scans. I suppose I was just googling "张敏杰作品" and "张敏杰" — you can see those search results for yourself. If I can retrace my steps and find titles/dates, I will certainly add them here. Links: —two pages on artelino: one, two —page on Zhuoke Arts —bio at World Print Makers All works (c) Zhang Minjie