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Chinese Landscape Tattoo No. 2

Huang Yan Chinese

1999

Not on view

In his 1999 photographic series Chinese Landscape Tattoo, Huang covers his torso and arms with traditional landscape scenes, presenting his “reincarnation” of literati-style painting. The composition, modeled in ink and colors on a white ground by Huang’s wife, the artist Zhang Tiemei (b. 1968), follows the natural form of Huang’s body. In the photos, the artist’s face is cropped away and Huang’s anonymous torso becomes an emblem of the Chinese everyman who cannot be separated from his cultural heritage, which, like his racial identity, is as indelible as a tattoo.

Chinese Landscape Tattoo No. 2, Huang Yan (Chinese, born 1966), Chromogenic print, China — Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Title: Chinese Landscape Tattoo No. 2

Artist: Huang Yan (Chinese, born 1966)

Date: 1999

Culture: China

Medium: Chromogenic print

Dimensions: Image: 20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 61 cm)

Classification: Photographs

Credit Line: Lent by a private collection, New York

Accession Number: SL.14.2013.3.4

Rights and Reproduction: © Huang Yan

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Asian Art at The Met

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