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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong, © Ma Desheng
Ma Desheng 馬德升
Minions 寵兒
1979, printed 2005
This woodcut print depicts a sea of alternating black and white columns, punctuated by columns of horizontal stripes. The columns resemble towers with tiny semi-circular windows. Small rectangular faces divided into black and white halves are positioned atop each tower. Featuring triangular eyes and oval mouths, the faces appear to be expressionless masks. The work demonstrates Ma Desheng’s exploration of geometric abstraction, one of the several styles he experimented with. His monochromatic prints stood in contrast to the realistic imagery and bright colours of propaganda art produced during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) in China. 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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