PERSONAL TIMELINE
1955
Xu Bing is born in Chongqing, China, and in 1957 moves to Beijing with his parents.
1974-77
Relocates to the mountainous region of northern China to perform farm labor, sketches during his free time, and initiates amateur group art and cultural activities in the countryside.
1977
Enters the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (CAFA) where he studies printmaking. His works are shown widely in Europe, Asia and North America and are collected by the British Library.
1981
Begins teaching at CAFA, and studies the instruction of sketching, which he follows with a 100,000-word treatise entitled Notes on Sketching Education
1984
Accepted by CAFA as a graduate student in their MFA program
1987
Earns his MFA and begins to create A Book from the Sky.
1988
The Art of Xu Bing opens at the China National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing, which includes the first completed section of A Book from the Sky. The show attracts widespread attention both in China and abroad, and critics begin to discuss the Xu Bing phenomenon. Later, he travels to the Paris Academy of Arts as a visiting artist.
1989
Participates in the first China Avant-Gardeexhibition.
1990
Begins work on Ghosts Pounding the Wall , a large-scale, outdoor ink-on-paper rubbing from the Beijing Jin Shan Ling section of the Great Wall. Accepts an invitation to become honorary fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and moves to the United States.
1991
Three Installations by Xu Bing, his first solo exhibition in the West, is held at the Elvehjem Museum of Art.
1992
Moves to Vermillion, a small town in South Dakota, to study papermaking and western bookbinding.
1993
Moves to the East Village. Participates in the 45th Venice Biennale, and at the end of the year, returns to Beijing to begin experimenting with art involving live animals.
1994
His work is shown at the Reina Sofia Museum of Art in Spain and he begins to design Square Word Calligraphy.
1995
Begins work on the American Silkworm Series.
1996
Completes editing and printing An Introduction to Square Word Calligraphy, which he shows as part of a calligraphy classroom.
1997
Participates in the Johannesburg and Kwangju Bienniales. A Book From the Sky is added to the art-history textbook Art Past, Art Present.
1998
Is named recipient of a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
1999
Wins the MacArthur genius grant. His works are shown at both the Ludwig and Bonn Museums of Art in Germany and at the Museum of Modern (MoMA), New York. Lives and hikes in the Himalaya region of Nepal, where he begins work on his Landscript series.
2000
Shows at the Sydney Biennial. The National Gallery in Prague holds a major retrospective of Xu Bing’s work. Completes The Tobacco Project at Duke University, North Carolina.
2001
Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing opens at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, long a standard text for college Art History courses, includes his work in their updated edition.
2003
Wins the 14th Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize. Princeton University organizes a conference to discuss the role of text in Xu Bing’s art. Later, Xu Bing is named an honorary professor by his alma mater, the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
2004
Receives the inaugural Coca-Cola Fellowship and assumes a residency at the American Academy in Berlin. In May Xu Bing in Berlin opens at the National Museum for East Asian Art. Earlier in the year, Xu Bing creates “Where Does the Dust Collect Itself?” and wins the first Wales International Visual Art Prize, Artes Mundi. “Art in America” lists Xu Bing, along with 10 other artists, in their annual Year in Review.
2005
Makes an initial site visit to Kenya as part of his 木, 林, 森 Project.
2006
Princeton University Press publishes Persistence-transformation: text as image in the art of Xu Bing, a volume of papers from the 2003 conference of the same name.
1955
Xu Bing is born in Chongqing, China, and in 1957 moves to Beijing with his parents.
1974-77
Relocates to the mountainous region of northern China to perform farm labor, sketches during his free time, and initiates amateur group art and cultural activities in the countryside.
1977
Enters the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (CAFA) where he studies printmaking. His works are shown widely in Europe, Asia and North America and are collected by the British Library.
1981
Begins teaching at CAFA, and studies the instruction of sketching, which he follows with a 100,000-word treatise entitled Notes on Sketching Education
1984
Accepted by CAFA as a graduate student in their MFA program
1987
Earns his MFA and begins to create A Book from the Sky.
1988
The Art of Xu Bing opens at the China National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing, which includes the first completed section of A Book from the Sky. The show attracts widespread attention both in China and abroad, and critics begin to discuss the Xu Bing phenomenon. Later, he travels to the Paris Academy of Arts as a visiting artist.
1989
Participates in the first China Avant-Gardeexhibition.
1990
Begins work on Ghosts Pounding the Wall , a large-scale, outdoor ink-on-paper rubbing from the Beijing Jin Shan Ling section of the Great Wall. Accepts an invitation to become honorary fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and moves to the United States.
1991
Three Installations by Xu Bing, his first solo exhibition in the West, is held at the Elvehjem Museum of Art.
1992
Moves to Vermillion, a small town in South Dakota, to study papermaking and western bookbinding.
1993
Moves to the East Village. Participates in the 45th Venice Biennale, and at the end of the year, returns to Beijing to begin experimenting with art involving live animals.
1994
His work is shown at the Reina Sofia Museum of Art in Spain and he begins to design Square Word Calligraphy.
1995
Begins work on the American Silkworm Series.
1996
Completes editing and printing An Introduction to Square Word Calligraphy, which he shows as part of a calligraphy classroom.
1997
Participates in the Johannesburg and Kwangju Bienniales. A Book From the Sky is added to the art-history textbook Art Past, Art Present.
1998
Is named recipient of a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
1999
Wins the MacArthur genius grant. His works are shown at both the Ludwig and Bonn Museums of Art in Germany and at the Museum of Modern (MoMA), New York. Lives and hikes in the Himalaya region of Nepal, where he begins work on his Landscript series.
2000
Shows at the Sydney Biennial. The National Gallery in Prague holds a major retrospective of Xu Bing’s work. Completes The Tobacco Project at Duke University, North Carolina.
2001
Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing opens at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, long a standard text for college Art History courses, includes his work in their updated edition.
2003
Wins the 14th Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize. Princeton University organizes a conference to discuss the role of text in Xu Bing’s art. Later, Xu Bing is named an honorary professor by his alma mater, the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
2004
Receives the inaugural Coca-Cola Fellowship and assumes a residency at the American Academy in Berlin. In May Xu Bing in Berlin opens at the National Museum for East Asian Art. Earlier in the year, Xu Bing creates “Where Does the Dust Collect Itself?” and wins the first Wales International Visual Art Prize, Artes Mundi. “Art in America” lists Xu Bing, along with 10 other artists, in their annual Year in Review.
2005
Makes an initial site visit to Kenya as part of his 木, 林, 森 Project.
2006
Princeton University Press publishes Persistence-transformation: text as image in the art of Xu Bing, a volume of papers from the 2003 conference of the same name.