Xu Bing’s The Living Word Unveiled

New York, NY, July 19, 2011—Chinese artist Xu Bing's spectacular work, The Living Word 3, was unveiled to the public at The Morgan Library & Museum on Tuesday, July 19, culminating a week-long installation directed by the artist of more than four hundred calligraphic characters. The Living Word 3 soars from the floor of the Morgan's glass-enclosed Gilbert Court towards a position near its third floor balcony—as the characters rise in the air they gradually change from contemporary Chinese letters to ancient pictographic expressions of birds. It is the artist's third and largest version of The Living Word series and the first to be displayed in a New York City museum. The work will remain on view through October 2. 

Xu Bing has described The Living Word as a "floating, iridescent cloud of calligraphy" that traces the Chinese character niao, meaning "bird," through time. The characters are painted in rainbow-like colors to create a magical, fairy-tale quality as they rise and escape from the confines of literal definition. The installation at the Morgan also includes a selection of the artist's original sketches for the project.

"Xu Bing has long been attracted to the intersection of word and image," said William M. Griswold, director of The Morgan Library & Museum, "and The Living Word 3 is an extraordinary example of this. Moreover, it is particularly appropriate for the Morgan as it speaks to the focus of our collections on both text and fine art. We are delighted that Xu Bing has specifically designed this work to take full advantage of the beauty of Renzo Piano's architecture."

Though the Morgan is noted for its holdings of American and European art and literature, its founder, Pierpont Morgan, was also interested in Chinese art. He collected art and artifacts from the Middle East as well as Asia, and the Morgan will hold an exhibition this fall of some of its greatest Islamic manuscripts.

Most of the four hundred acrylic characters that make up The Living Word 3 are carefully tied to a specially-made wire grid attached to the Gilbert Court ceiling. The characters are suspended with monofilament, also known as fishing line. The court is the central public crossroads of the museum and includes the popular Morgan Café.

Xu Bing received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999. In 2002 he was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize and in 2004 received the first Wales International Visual Art Prize, Artes Mundi. Columbia University presented him with a Doctor of Humane Letters in 2010. In 2008, he was appointed vice president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and he now divides his time between that city and New York.

The artist grew up in Beijing but during the final years of the Cultural Revolution was sent to the countryside to perform farm labor. He entered China's Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1977 to study printmaking, receiving both his bachelor's and master's degrees there.

Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at numerous museums, including the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, the Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona, and the National Gallery of Prague. His work has also been featured in the 45th and 51st Venice Biennales as well as in the Sydney and Johannesburg biennales.

Since reopening in 2006, The Morgan Library & Museum has mounted a series of critically acclaimed exhibitions devoted to modern and contemporary art, including solo shows of work by Philip Guston, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jim Dine. In the summer of 2010 it held its first exhibition in Gilbert Court with three sculptures by Mark di Suvero.

The installation of The Living Word 3 is made possible by a donation from Susanna and Livio Borghese and further underwritten by Clement and Elizabeth Moore, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky, and The Ricciardi Family Exhibition Fund, in honor of Parker Gilbert and in appreciation of his many contributions to The Morgan Library & Museum.

Generous support is also provided by the American Friends of the Shanghai Museum, with additional assistance from the DeBevoise Calello Family, Helen Little, and Xiling Group.