Spencer Alley: Chinese Tomb-Figures at the Rijksmuseum

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Chinese Tomb-Figures at the Rijksmuseum

Tomb-figures - Horse and Rider
AD 650-750 (Tang Dynasty)
pottery
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Tomb-figures - Camel and Rider
AD 650-750 (Tang Dynasty)
pottery
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Tomb-figure - An Official
AD 710-730 (Tang Dynasty)
pottery
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Tomb-figure - A Court Lady
AD 600-700 (Tang Dynasty)
pottery
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

STARS ART EXHIBIT

We, twenty-three art explorers, place some fruits of our labour here.
The world leaves unlimited possibilities for explorers.
We have used our own eyes to know the world, and our own brushes and awls to participate in it. Our paintings contain all sorts of expressions, and these expressions speak to our own individual ideals.
The years come at us; there are no mysterious indications guiding our actions.
That is precisely the challenge that life has raised to us. We cannot remove the element of temporality; the shadow of the past and the glow of the future are folded together, forming the various living conditions of today. Resolving to live on and remembering each lesson learned; this is our responsibility.
We love the ground beneath our feet. The land has nurtured us, we have no words to express our passion for the land. Seizing this moment of the thirtieth anniversary of the nation's founding, we give our harvest back to the land, and to the people.
This brings us closer. We are full of confidence.

– Huang Rui, text from a poster for the first unofficial Stars Art Exhibition held in the garden outside the National Museum of Chinese Art (Beijing, September 1979), translated by Philip Tinari and published in Huang Rui : the Stars times, 1977-1984