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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong, © Ma Desheng
Ma Desheng 馬德升
Untitled 無題
1979, printed 2005
This woodcut print depicts two portraits of the Buddha—a profile view in black on the left, and a white frontal view that occupies the centre. Three arcs segment the black space on the right, where a tapered wavy shape suggests a burning lamp. The black-and-white colour scheme is characteristic of Ma Desheng’s woodcuts, which stood in contrast to the bright colours of propaganda art produced during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) in China. This was a period when religious activity was banned and Buddhist artefacts were destroyed—the presence of the Buddha in the work breaks away from art devoid of religious references. Ma is a self-taught artist, and the style of his expressive prints was influenced by the woodcuts of Käthe Kollwitz and Edvard Munch. 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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