Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
The True Story of Ah Q
Zhao Yannian Chinese
Not on view
The True Story of Ah Q by the revolutionary writer Lu Xun (1881–1936) is bitterly ironic. The fictional Ah Q lived through the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 and the early years of the Republic. Paradoxically a bully and a coward, he epitomizes the seriously flawed Chinese character. Mindlessly following others through a life of misery, defiance, and self-delusion, he eventually brings about his own execution.
Zhao Yannian’s series of sixty woodblock-printed illustrations of this story is considered his masterpiece. Redolent of European Expressionism, Zhao’s prints focus attention on Lu Xun’s antihero by creating strong contrasts with the “black against white” and “white against black” techniques.
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