Ma Desheng — 1992 — 2002 : Renaissance — A2Z Art Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: April 25 → June 1, 2015

For over 5 years, A2Z Art Gallery has established itself as more than a gallery, a real art and civilization bridge between Far East and West.

Today, A2Z Art Gallery has decided to return to the source of this Franco-Chinese relationship by presenting a new exhibition dedicated to the work of an artist settled for three decades in France, one of the pioneers of Chinese contemporary art: Ma Desheng.

In turn poet, engraver, calligrapher, painter and performer, Ma Desheng’s fighting spirit and creativity are a model to us all. Born in Beijing in 1952, Ma Desheng is one of the leading post-opening reforms Chinese contemporary artists. Suffering very young from a serious illness, he is forced to move on crutches, which, however, did not limit his productivity and creativity. Self-taught, starting as a draftsman and engraver, Ma Desheng founds in 1979, with other now internationally recognized Chinese artists such as Ai Weiwei and Wang Keping, the group of “Stars” (xingxing) the first artistic avant-garde movement in China.

After a relatively short stay in Switzerland, Ma Desheng moves to France in 1986. He realizzq with washing a monumental frieze more than 50 meters long. This work, and a second of the same size made earlier, are supposed to be the subject of an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York when, in 1992, everything stops … Indeed, this year marks a turning point in the career of the artist : he is the victim of a terrible car accident. This drama will force him to stay in bed for more than two years, and will keep him away from the international art scene for more than 10 years.

From 1992 to 2002, Ma Desheng, trapped inside a body that is no longer responsive, fights to revive the artistic passion in him. 10 years of rehabilitation, then he regains his strength ; Ma Desheng comes out victorious from this battle. He begins to paint forms in acrylic, between abstraction and figuration, between woman and rocks, destroying, through their texture, the boundaries between sculpture and painting. These often monumental artworks bear testimony to the artist’s fighting spirit.

Through his works, his extraordinary career, Ma Desheng gives us a life lesson: no matter our history or the challenges and obstacles that could stand in our way, our passion and will must be stronger than anything.

It is this strength, this will to survive or just to live again and again, that the A2Z Art Gallery wanted to put forward for the exhibition “1992-2002: Rebirth”, dedicated to the work of the great contemporary Chinese artist Ma Desheng.