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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong, © Ma Desheng
Ma Desheng 馬德升
The Popsicle Vendor 冰棒
1979, printed 2005
In this woodcut print, a woman in a cap and apron stands behind a wooden cart. The Chinese words for Popsicle are printed on the side of the cart, with a broad-brimmed hat hung from the handle and a folded sheet on top. The woman’s face is wrinkled and her shoulders are hunched. She intently counts the coins in her hand—perhaps her day’s earnings. A self-taught artist influenced by the woodcuts of Käthe Kollwitz and Frans Masereel, Ma Desheng produced monochromatic and expressive prints that were in sharp contrast to the realistic imagery and bright colours of propaganda art of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Many of his 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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