Monkeys Grasp for the Moon

Object Details

Artist

Xu Bing (born 1955; active United States)

Manufacturer

Smithsonian Institution Office of Exhibitions Central

Edition/State

1/2

Label

Born in the People's Republic of China, Xu Bing grew up surrounded by books at Beijing University, where his father chaired the history department and his mother worked in the department of library sciences. During the Cultural Revolution, Xu produced revolutionary posters and a village newsletter while working on a communal farm. As a student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, he employed innovative drawing and woodcut techniques along with his knowledge of artistic fonts and, later, became one of the Academy's youngest faculty members. With his early iconoclastic work, Book From the Sky (1987), Xu emerged as a major figure in the avant-garde (New Wave) art movement in China, as well as the object of harsh government criticism. In 1990, Xu emigrated to the United States where, finding himself in a new and unfamiliar place, he began to consider language and his fascination with words in the context of cultural interactions. Subsequent works, like Square Word Calligraphy Classroom (1996 and ongoing), confirmed his identity as an international artist.

Based on a Chinese folktale of monkeys who try to reach for the moon, only to discover a vanishing reflection in the water, Monkeys Grasp for the Moon is an installation of word shapes, each one a representation of the word "monkey" rendered in twenty languages and writing systems, including English, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Braille. The words resemble monkeys, stretched at beginning and end to form long tails and arms that link together.

Collection

National Museum of Asian Art Collection

Exhibition History

Xu Bing: Monkeys Grasp for the Moon (November 24, 2004 - March 13, 2020)

Credit Line

Purchase — funds provided by the family of Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Chiang Soong Mayling 1898-2003)

2001-2004

Accession Number

S2004.2.1-21

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

Sculpture

Medium

Lacquer on Baltic birch wood

Dimensions

H x W x D (overall assembled): 2591.1 x 78 x 4.1 cm (1020 1/8 x 30 11/16 x 1 5/8 in)

Origin

China

Related Online Resources

Google Arts & Culture

See more items in

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Topic

lacquer

moon

monkey

China

Chinese Art

Contemporary Art

Record ID

fsg_S2004.2.1-21

Metadata Usage (text)

Usage conditions apply

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ye3f3656562-3854-46e9-8bc1-21873481c1bc