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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong, © Ma Desheng
Ma Desheng 馬德升
Flying Goddess 飛仙
1979
This woodcut print depicts an encounter between a bird and a winged female figure. The bird resembles a crane, with a long neck and large wings. It hovers over the reeds, as if flying in from the left. The female figure at right faces the crane with outstretched wings, her slender body leaning back, and long, billowing dress flowing to the ground. The black space of the night sky separates woman and bird. Lightning bolts appear in the sky, suggesting an impending storm. Black dominates the work, a characteristic of Ma Desheng’s prints. Ma is a self-taught artist, and the style of his expressive prints was influenced by the woodcuts of Käthe Kollwitz and Edvard Munch. Many of his other prints depict the feelings of depression permeating Chinese society and were published in the underground literary journal Today. After moving to Paris in 1986, Ma resumed working in ink-wash painting, a medium he had first used in his early career in China.
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