{
"data": {
"id": 522544,
"accession_number": "2022.254",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Calligraphy (\u53e4\u4f5b\u5750\u7121\u8a00), 1987. Ma Desheng (Chinese, active in France, b. 1952). Hanging scroll; ink on rice paper; calligraphy: 138.5 x 64 cm (54 1/2 x 25 3/16 in.); overall: 201 x 71.3 cm (79 1/8 x 28 1/16 in.); overall with knobs: 201 x 81 cm (79 1/8 x 31 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 2022.254",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Calligraphy",
"title_in_original_language": "\u53e4\u4f5b\u5750\u7121\u8a00",
"creation_date": "1987",
"creation_date_earliest": 1987,
"creation_date_latest": 1987,
"artists_tags": [
"male",
"Asian (from 1900 to present)"
],
"culture": [
"France, Paris"
],
"technique": "Hanging scroll; ink on rice paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Chinese Art",
"collection": "Chinese Art",
"type": "Calligraphy",
"measurements": "calligraphy: 138.5 x 64 cm (54 1/2 x 25 3/16 in.); Overall: 201 x 71.3 cm (79 1/8 x 28 1/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 201 x 81 cm (79 1/8 x 31 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"calligraphy": {
"height": 1.385,
"height_inch": 54,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.64,
"width_inch": 25,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.1875
},
"overall": {
"height": 2.01,
"height_inch": 79,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.125,
"width": 0.713,
"width_inch": 28,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0625
},
"overall with knobs": {
"height": 2.01,
"height_inch": 79,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.125,
"width": 0.81,
"width_inch": 31,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "\u53e4\u4f5b\u5750\u7121\u8a00",
"inscription_translation": "The ancient Buddha sits and has no words.",
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "\u99ac\u516b\u4e03",
"inscription_translation": "Ma 8 7",
"inscription_remark": "Red seal of the artist with his family name, dated 1987, is positioned on the lower left near the character \"yan\" (\u8a00).",
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 681910,
"title": "Chinese Buddhist Art Rotation",
"description": "Chinese Buddhist Art Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 8, 2024-November 9, 2025).",
"opening_date": "2024-09-08T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Christopher Waldersee, Germany, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20132022",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2022\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Ma transforms the first character \u53e4 \u201cancient\u201d into a square building surmounted with what looks like a Christian cross.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Ma Desheng was the cofounder and spokesman of the Stars (Xingxing \u661f\u661f), a constellation of avant-garde artists active between 1979 and 1983. He is interested in using art for personal versus collective or propagandistic purposes. Ma moved from Beijing to Paris in 1986 and was knighted in October 2021 by the French Minister of Culture for his contributions to the arts.
Ma wrote \u201cthe ancient Buddha sits and has no words\u201d after dreaming of climbing the sacred Mount Tai and seeing the silent Buddha. His artistic and political experiences had also taught him that wordlessness represents a kind of strength and wisdom.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117247690"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2022.254",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Dudley P. Allen Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 522544,
"creators": [
{
"id": 522546,
"description": "Ma Desheng (Chinese, active in France, b. 1952)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Ma Desheng \u99ac\u5fb7\u5347 was born in 1952 in Beijing. Due to polio as a child, he was handicapped and not allowed to enter an art school. Ma is self-educated and worked initially as a woodblock print artist and poet and later began to paint with traditional Chinese ink and oil.
Ma was the cofounder and spokesman of the Stars (Xingxing \u661f\u661f\u753b\u4f1a) group of avant-garde painters who were active in the underground between 1979 and 1983. During this time, he produced boldly graphic, monochromatic woodblock prints. The Stars exhibited in 1979 outside the National Gallery, but their show was closed by the Chinese government after only 3 days, having already attracted thousands of visitors and the international press. The exhibition was a breakthrough for the Chinese avant garde that would change the course of Chinese art forever.
Ma left China, as did so many intellectuals and artists in the 1980s, and moved to Paris in 1986 where he continues to be active as an artist. Ma was knighted in October 2021 by the French Minister of Culture for his contributions to the arts.",
"name_in_original_language": "\u99ac\u5fb7\u5347",
"birth_year": "1952",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2022-12-05T05:00:00Z",
"sortable_date": 1987,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1987",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:54:23.706000"
}
}