Note: Dimensions listed are as unframed at 31.5in x 67.0in/ (80 x 170 cm). This is edition 3 of 8 and is in perfect condition. titled, numbered of eight and dated '"Angel" No. 2 CUI XIUWEN [in Chinese and Pinyin] 2006' on the reverse.
"Angel No. 3" (2007) is one of the most sublime images from the internationally acclaimed "Angel Series" of large-scale color c-print photographs that have made female Chinese photographer Cui Xiuwen (Chinese B. 1970) one of the leading photographers of her generation, and whose work is considered by curators and collectors world-wide to be ground-breaking, most notable as feminist art from China that deals with issues of gender, sexuality and self identity.
In" Angel No. 3" Cui repeats the image of her protagonist, the same beautiful innocent young Chinese girl obsessively turning her image into, “angels” depicted on earth 'en masse'. The young girl is portrayed with her eyes closed in various figural poses as if caught in different moments of the day, with mood swings and indecision. The artist uses the image of the innocently dressed, naive-looking young girl to represent the universal spirit of all people, and that our basic desires as humans vary little from one person to another, and all adults long to return to childhood on some level. The Angel Series does not deal with social and universal issues, but are a more personal commentary by Cui regarding the awareness and of individual and singular feelings of women in the variety or roles they play in today's Modern society. How does a mother in China in 2012 feel? How does a young girl in China feel? How does the artist herself feel?
Cui Xiuwen was born in 1970 in Heilongjiang, China and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1990 from the Fine Arts Department of Northeast Normal University, Jilin, China and a M.F.A. in 1996 with a focus on Oil Painting from the Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China. She had three solo exhibitions of her photography in 2011 alone including: 2011 “Existential Emptiness,” at Kiang Projects, Atlanta, GA and “Existential Emptiness,” Eli Klein Fine Art, New York, NY; "Discourse on Inner Humanity,” Chongqing Tank Loft, Chongqing, China. Her work has been exhibited and collected in top Private and Museum collections including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY; The Florence Museum, Italy; several notable Museums in China, Korea and throughout Asia and Europe.
