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Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

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Thomas Bayrle

Sun Yat-sen (Sign for Moon)

2005

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Since the 1960s Thomas Bayrle has incorporated into his work images relating to Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution, as well as the international impact of Chinese mass culture; in particular he has explored how ideas of the collective can challenge Western notions of individualism. In 2005 Bayrle embarked on a series of large woven cardboard constructions attached to a wooden grid, onto the surface of which he screen printed early propaganda photographs from "China im Bild" "(China Captured on Film)," a popular journal published in West Germany in the 1960s. "Sun Yat-sen" "(Sign for Moon)" is part of this series of cardboard reliefs. Albeit hazy and distorted, the image depicts the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, the first president and founding father of the Republic of China (1912) who helped to overthrow the Qing dynasty, and who became famous for developing the “Three Principles of the People”: nationalism, democracy, and “people’s livelihood.” Printed on the intersecting structure that, like a highway system, loosely recalls a collective network as a societal form, Sun Yat-sen’s iconic portrait inspires questions about individual accomplishments, on the one hand, and, on the other, utopias of collectivism spearheaded in China during Mao’s controversial reign. [Exhibition brochure text, 2013]

  • Artist Thomas Bayrle (German, b. 1937)
  • Title Sun Yat-sen (Sign for Moon)
  • Date 2005
  • Medium Screen print on cardboard mounted on wooden grid
  • Dimensions overall | 48 7/16 x 36 5/8 x 1 13/16 in.
  • Credit line University purchase with funds from the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation, 2012
  • Copyright © Thomas Bayrle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany
  • Object number WU 2012.0005

Contemporary German Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/03/2013 - 09/07/2013

Thomas Bayrle
Air de Paris (Paris, France), 04/20/2012 - 05/26/2012

10/5/2012
Air de Paris Gallery (Paris, France)

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

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Contemporary German Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection

May 03, 2013 - September 07, 2013
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Exhibitions

Thomas Bayrle

April 20, 2012 - May 26, 2012

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