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2019 Art season
The Ivy Clearing

Ma Desheng

"Sculptures"

published at 25/01/2019
Sculptures, installation de Ma Desheng au Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2020 - © DR

Ma Desheng has been painting, drawing and sculpting stones since the 1970s. He sees stones as possessing souls, expressing himself under the guidance of the “vital breath” – the famous qi. This physical and sensory relationship promotes a universal hope – Harmony. All Ma Desheng’s thought is based on Taoist philosophy: humankind is not at the centre of the universe, but one element among many others. Human beings have no rights over nature and have a duty to respect it.

Ma Desheng’s work soon started to focus on the human body, which had initially been absent from it, or at the most had a marginal presence in his landscapes of cosmic dimensions. The body has continued to be a guiding principle in his experiments with Chinese ink and lithography. The body’s movements have succeeded the stability of landscapes. For him, stone is the means of making the best possible synthesis between movement and stability. He started out by painting on canvas, producing a whole series, “Stone Beings”. He then turned to using the material itself. His assemblages imitate the body, employing a material that comes from the ground. Deprived of his own body’s mobility, the artist sets out to examine all forms of equilibrium. Stones are piled up over and over again, playing on the paradox of their weight and fragility.

Ma Desheng’s monumental bronze sculptures are of depersonalised figures that transcend the human condition. They forge links between palpable elements (earth), on which humans stand, and intangible elements (sky), for which humans reach and of which they dream. For Ma Desheng, stone is a catalysing element for all beings imbued with energy, the record sheet of eternity. 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Ma DESHENG
CHINA
 
 
Born in Beijing in 1952, Ma Desheng is a key figure in sound poetry, action poetry and performance reading. He is also an engraver, calligrapher and painter.
Although he contracted polio as a child, leaving him crutch- and wheelchair-bound, his disability has done nothing to limit his productivity and creativity.
In 1979, he was a founder member of the Xing-Xing (Stars) group, China’s first avant-garde art movement, alongside Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Zhong Acheng and Ai Weiwei.
He is represented by the Kwai Fung Hin Gallery in Hong Kong, the Rossi Rossi Galery in London and the A2Z Art Gallery in Paris and Hong Kong.

COLLECTIONS

Museum of Contemporary History, Paris, France
Association of Contemporary Art Movement, Chamalières, France
Municipal Fund of Contemporary Art of the City of Paris, Ivry-sur-Seine, France
Orient Foundation, Macau
Museum of Art and History, Melun, France
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Ashmolean Museum, London, Great Britain
Museum and Art Gallery of Hong Kong University
Asian Arts Museum, Nice, France
British Museum, London, Great Britain
Cernuschi Museum, Paris, France
Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
Complete Biography

EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2018
Art Paris Art Fair, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France
Entre terre et ciel, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France
 
2016
Art Paris Art Fair, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France
Busan Biennale, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea
Ma Desheng, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France
 
2015
Carreau du Temple, Paris, France
Art Paris Art Fair, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France
1992 - 2002: Renaissance, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France
 
2014
Black‧White‧Grey: Solo exhibition of Ma Desheng (Works of 1979-2013), Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Hong Kong
 
2013
Ma Desheng: selected works 1978-2013, Rossi & Rossi, London, Great Britain
Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris, France
Voice Of The Unseen, Biennale of Venice, Italy
 
2012
Art Miami, USA
Frank Pagès Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
 
2011
Êtres de Pierre, souffle de Vie?, Asian Arts Museum, Nice, France
Artistes chinois à Paris, Musée Cernuschi, Paris, France
Blooming in the Shadows, Unofficial Chinese Art 1974-1985, China Institute in America, New York, USA
 
2010
Story of Stone, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
 
2009
Biennale of Sculpture, Yerres, France
 
2008
Art Paris Art Fair, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Go China !, Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands
 
2007
Art Paris Art Fair, Grand Palais, Paris, France
 
2006
Lasés Gallery, Paris, France
Jacques Barrère Gallery, Paris, France
Faceted Symphonies: Paintings by Ma Desheng, University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, Hong
 
2005
Mahjong - Contemporary Chinese Art, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland
 
2004
Sens interdit, Espace Culturel François Mitterrand, Périgueux, France and Ancien Évêché, Sarlat-la-Canéda, France
 
2003
Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China
 
2002
Exhibition at the Ministry of Finance, Place des Arts Association, Paris, France
 
2001
China without Borders, Michael Goedhuis Gallery and Sotheby's, New York, USA
 
2000
Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Leda Fletcher Gallery, Milan, Italy
Ventabren art contemporain, Ventabren, France
 
1999
Michael Goedhuis Gallery, London, Great Britain
 
1998
Palais des Congrès, Royan, France
 
1997
Espace Saint-Jean, Melun, France
 
1996
Michael Goedhuis Gallery, London, Great Britain
Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, USA
Face à l'Histoire (1933-1996), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
 
1980
Étoiles, National Museum of Fine Arts of China, Beijing, China
 
1979
Étoiles, Beihai Park, Beijing, China
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Aquired by the Centre-Val de Loire Region in 2007, The Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire has become an unmissable site within the spheres of art and gardens. The triple identity of the Domaine : Heritage, art and gardens make for a unique visit within the circuit of the Loire Valley castles

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