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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong, © Ma Desheng
Ma Desheng 馬德升
Seeing Town 目城
1979, printed 2005
In Seeing Town, waves of triangular prisms represent rooftops. A diamond-shaped eye peers out in the foreground, and a second is visible further in the distance. The rooftops, which seem to overlap, suggest a town with houses tightly crammed together. For the artist, the print represents the desire to see outside and the presence of obstacles that block the view. A self-taught artist influenced by the woodcuts of Käthe Kollwitz and Edvard Munch, Ma Desheng produced monochromatic and expressive prints that were in sharp contrast to the realistic imagery and bright colours of the propaganda art of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). 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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