Framing the Revolution: Contemporary Chinese Photographs from the Jack and Susy Wadsworth Collection features over 50 politically charged works dating from 1958 to 2006. Together they reflect on modern Chinese history, examining events such as the Red Army’s Long March (1934–35), the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966 –76), and other times of enormous social upheaval and change. The artists included are Wang Shilong (born in 1930), Liu Heung Shing (born in 1951), Xiao Lu (born in 1966), Sheng Qi (born in 1965), Qin Ga (born in 1971) and Shao Yinong (born in 1966). 1961) & Muchen (born in 1970).
This abridged study of mid-twentieth to early twenty-first century photography begins with black-and-white propaganda images by Wang Shilong showing aspects of Chinese society before, during, and after the Cultural Revolution. It continues with journalistic images by Liu Heung Shing that document the idealistic young artists behind Beijing’s 1979 Star Art Exhibition. The exhibition also features the notorious image of Xiao Lu firing a pistol at his own art installation during the opening of the China/Avant-Garde exhibition in February 1989, as well as works by Sheng Qi reflecting the legacy of the Cultural Revolution. Framing the Revolution ends with photos in which Shao Yinong & Muchen and Qin Ga re-enact and remember the tumultuous Long March, in which dwindling numbers of Communists marched over 5,600 miles under fire from Nationalist forces.
In 1991, Jack and Susy Wadsworth moved to Hong Kong, which they used as a base to explore China’s burgeoning art scene. Eventually, their remarkable photography collection grew to over 190 works, which they began donating to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in 2018.
Framing the Revolution is on view through August 27 in Eugene, Oregon, and is available to travel thereafter.
For more information, visit jsma.uoregon.edu.
The upcoming exhibition, programs and catalog are made possible by generous funding from the WLS Spencer Foundation, which is also helping the museum hire a curator of contemporary Chinese art.
