Cui Xiuwen

Cui Xiuwen was born in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. She attended the Fine Arts School of Northeast Normal University and graduated in 1990. She then went on to study at China's Central Academy of Fine Arts and received her Master's of Fine Arts in 1996.{{Cite web|url=http://art.china.cn/huihua/2010-04/07/content_3451962_2.htm|title=2010崔岫闻个展 关注普世意义_艺术中国|website=art.china.cn|access-date=2017-07-08}} At the time of her death in 2018 she lived and worked in Beijing, China.

She exhibited her work at Tate Modern, Florence Museum, Today Art Museum (Beijing), Fabien Fryns Fine Art, Eli Klein Fine Art Gallery (New York), Blindspot Gallery (Hong Kong), and Art Stage Singapore.

Cui has been identified as part of the Chinese Feminism movement, although she stated the following in an Artslant interview: "I think it's very limiting. It seems to just be a feature of the art market and very difficult to escape."{{cite news | url=http://www.artslant.com/ny/artists/rackroom/13129-cui-xiuwen | work=Artslant | first=Sophia | last=Powers | date=2010-01-01 | title=Interview with Cui Xiuwen | access-date=2014-07-22 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003210256/http://www.artslant.com/ny/artists/rackroom/13129-cui-xiuwen | archive-date=2013-10-03 | url-status=dead }}

She is best known for her work [https://worldchambers.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/cui-xiuwens-ladies-room/ Ladies' Room]{{cite news|url=http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?1295|title=Light on female sexuality in China|last=Bergquist|first=Karin|date=2013-07-17|work=Culture Base}} (2000), which was censored from being exhibited at the first Guangzhou Triennial.{{cite web|url=http://teachartwiki.wikispaces.com/Ladies+Room+--+Cui+Xiuwen|title=teachartwiki - Ladies Room -- Cui Xiuwen|website=teachartwiki.wikispaces.com|accessdate=7 August 2018|archive-date=30 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730070204/https://teachartwiki.wikispaces.com/Ladies+Room+--+Cui+Xiuwen|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|url=http://hyperallergic.com/45941/cui-xiuwen-miao-xiaochun-eli-klein/|title=More Radical in China|last=Pearlman|first=Ellen|date=2012-02-14|work=Hyperallergic}} In this work, Cui hid an inconspicuous spy camera inside the ladies' bathroom of a popular Beijing karaoke club, recording unfiltered conversations and candid moments of local call girls getting ready for clients. In her series of photographs titled [http://www.odetoart.com/shop.php?p=artist&a=309,Cui%20Xiuwen Existential Emptiness] (2009), a schoolgirl and her life-sized doll companion are depicted in sparse and snowy landscapes, tackling themes of adolescence, identity, and mortality.

In her Angel series, Cui featured a pregnant Asian woman with porcelain skin and rosy cheeks in a “virginal” white dress.{{cite magazine |last=Coggins |first=David |date=February 2007 |title=Cui Xiuwen: Marella Gallery |magazine=Modern Painters |page=99}} Since pregnancy of young unmarried girls is considered taboo in China, this series makes social commentary about the double standards and treatment of women in China.

Building on earlier themes of sexuality, society, and the female body, Cui also created the One day in 2004 works in 2005. This series of autobiographical works featured adolescent girls adorned with cultural-revolution inspired red scarves in digitally manipulated locations of the Forbidden City.

{{cite web|url=https://www.contemporary-art.org/Photography/One-Day-in-2004-Works-37302.html|title=One Day in 2004|website=www.contemporary-art.org/|accessdate=17 September 2024}}

{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371046799_Art_and_Identity_in_the_Forbidden_City_Paradox_in_One_Day_in_2004_No_6/|title=Art and Identity in the Forbidden City: Paradox in One Day in 2004|last=O'Connor|first=Katie|date=March 2023|work=Spectrum 182}}

Most of Cui's work incorporated traditional Chinese scroll paintings, in which the natural landscape beauty is more important than the people.

File:Sanjie, 2003, Cui Xiuwen at Hirshhorn 2022.jpg in 2022]]

Sanjie is Cui's remake of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, in which all thirteen characters are played by the same girl, with a red scarf around her neck, in order to represent communist themes.

Cui's major exhibitions include: Reincarnation, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China (2014); The Love of Soul, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China (2014); Inspired by the Opera: Contemporary Chinese Photography and Video, Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago, Chicago (2014); IU: You & Me, Suzhou Art Museum, Suzhou, China (2013); Spiritual Realm, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China (2010); Talk Statement, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan; National Museum of China, Beijing, China (2009); Our Future: The Guy & Myriam Ullens Collection, UCCA, Beijing, China (2008); Floating – New Generation of Art in China, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea (2007); The Thirteen: Chinese Video Now, MoMA PS1, New York, NY (2006); Untitled: Julia Loktev, Julika Rudelius, Cui Xiuwen, Tate Modern, London, UK (2004) and Alors, la Chine?, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2003).

Cui has received numerous awards and distinctions that have placed her among the most influential modern Chinese artists. In 1998, she received the Women in the Arts Society Award given by The Committee of “Century • Women” Art Exhibition. In 2008, she was awarded the Outstanding Female Artist Biennial Award from Shu-Fang Hsiao Art Foundation as well as the Shu-Fang Hsiao Art Fund Award for Outstanding Female Artist given by Wu Zuoren International Foundation of Fine Arts. In 2010, she was awarded the Youth Artist Award by Chinese Art Critic Annual. In the same year, Cui was the first woman to be distinguished by the Artists Association of China as an Art China Annual Influential Artist.{{Cite web|url=http://en.cafa.com.cn/cui-xiuwen.html|title=Cui Xiuwen|last=Wang|first=Sue|date=October 22, 2012|website=CAFA Art Info|access-date=July 22, 2014|archive-date=July 27, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140727211933/http://en.cafa.com.cn/cui-xiuwen.html|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.sackler.org/cui-xiuwen-angels-light/|title=CUI XIUWEN: LIGHT {{!}} 崔岫闻: 光 – Arthur M. Sackler|language=en|access-date=2019-03-02}}

Cui Xiuwen died on 1 August 2018 following a long illness.{{cite web|url=http://artasiapacific.com/News/ObituaryCuiXiuwen19702018|title=ArtAsiaPacific: Obituary Cui Xiuwen19702018|website=artasiapacific.com|accessdate=7 August 2018}}

• Central Academy of Fine Arts
• Fabien Fryns Fine Art
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5TdezdpJVo Cui Xiuwen interview with Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqLwYt5WEM Cui Xiuwen Interview with Ode to Art]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nd0VPGrKpA Cui Xiuwen on Death with Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art]

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140726151124/http://www.cuixiuwen.com/EnArtist.aspx Cui Xiuwen's English website]
• [http://www.fabienfryns.com/artist/6/ Cui Xiuwen's Artwork on Fabien Fryns Fine Art]

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Category:1967 births

Category:2018 deaths

Category:Chinese women photographers

Category:Artists from Harbin

Category:Central Academy of Fine Arts alumni

Category:Chinese contemporary artists

Category:Painters from Heilongjiang

Category:20th-century women photographers

Category:21st-century women photographers