A Complete Set of Chinese Zodiac Figures in Tang Dynasty Three Colors Glaze Ceramic Style

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A Complete Set of Chinese Zodiac Figures in Tang Dynasty Three Colors Glaze Ceramic Style

Artist Zhang Hongtu (Chinese, b. 1943)

Place of OriginChina

Date2004

Dimensions(Each) 12 × 4 3/4 × 3 7/8 in. (30.5 × 12.1 × 9.8 cm)
Shelf for display: 14 × 107 1/2 × 11 1/2 in.

MediumGlazed ceramics

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, by exchange

Object number

2008.159A-L

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 35

Label TextThe forms of these 12 symbols of the Chinese zodiac—human figures with animal heads (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig)—originated in ancient China. During the Tang Dynasty (618–907), sets of clay zodiac figures painted in the sancai (“three-color”) dripped glaze typical of Tang ceramics were buried in the tombs of the wealthy. More than 1,000 years later, artist Zhang Hongtu has created his Tang-inspired zodiac figures with a distinctly modern, ironic twist: the identical hands-behind-the-back pose and costume are based on popular ceramic figures of Communist leader Mao Zedong (1893–1976) made in China in the 1950s and 1960s. Hongtu wrote, “There are three elements in this work: the Tang tri-colored pottery texture, the Mao outfit, and the postures of the 12 zodiac animals…When I mixed these three seemingly unrelated elements, I intended to create new images that have connections with reality—connections which transcend the meaning of the twelve animals. This strange mixture parallels the current situation in China: a mixture of old and new, East and West.” See the chart nearby to find your Zodiac animal and its meaning.Published Referencescf. Silbergeld, Jerome, and Dora C. Y. Ching, Articulations: Undefining Chinese Contemporary Art, Princeton, N.J: P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for East Asian Art, Dept. of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, 2010, repr. p. 228, fig. 12.

cf. Silbergeld, Jerome and Luchia Meihua Lee, eds., Zhang Hongtu: Expanding Visions of a Shrinking World," Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press; Queens, N.Y.: Queens Museum, 2015, plate 113 (col.), p. 303.

Exhibition HistoryGettysburgh, PA, Schmucker Art Gallery, Gettysburgh College, Reinventing Tradition in New World: The arts of Gu Wenda, Wang Mangsheng, Xu Bing and Zhang Hongtu, 2004.

New York, Goedhuis Contemporary, Zhang Hongtu, 2005.