Untitled (Portrait of of Deng Xiaoping)

Artist

Zhu Wei (Chinese, b. 1966)

Date

2006

Medium

Lithograph

Dimensions

Sheet/image : 30 x 21 1/2 in. (76.2 x 54.61 cm)
Frame : 40 1/8 x 30 5/8 in. (1 m x 77.79 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Thomas and Kathleen Kirkwood in Honour of Charles and Virginia Kirkwood

Object Number

2015.49.2

Label

Since he emerged on the art scene in the 1990s, Zhu Wei has created an impressive body of paintings, sculptures and prints that question the rapidly evolving political and social conditions in contemporary China. This print depicts Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997), the Chinese Communist Party leader who allowed greater economic and social freedoms during the 1980s and 90s while insisting on strict political controls. Here Deng is portrayed neither as a hero nor as a villain, but as an old man whose life must be judged against the larger backdrop of
Chinese history.