Dragon 2014
Artist/Maker and role
Dongwang Fan (Australian, b.1958): Artist
Production date
2014
About this object
This artwork was donated to the MRAG Collection for ‘The piano has been drinking (not me)’, a Maitland Regional Art Gallery exhibition that celebrated the retirement of Cultural Director Joe Eisenberg in 2015. All the artists and donors participating in this exhibition were responding to Joe Eisenberg’s final ‘begging’ – a request to create a work on paper inspired by the lyrics of the Tom Waits song, ‘The piano has been drinking (not me)’ and then to donate that artwork to the MRAG Collection. This major act of goodwill and benefaction resulted in a parting gift from Eisenberg to the City of Maitland of 174 artworks valued at over $100,000.
Chinese-born artist Dongwang Fan established his career as an artist in Shanghai before relocating to Sydney in 1990. This work is an example of his ‘sculptural painting’ style, a depiction of the traditional Chinese dragon, reimagined in a bold, contemporary style but with ties to tradition and culture. The Chinese dragon is a reappearing figure in the artist’s cross-cultural body of work, and he has described it as representative of an “emerging cultural identity”. (www.fandongwang.com)
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Object detail
Verso: signed (in English and Chinese characters) and dated with title, medium and dimensions, in pen at u.l. corner.
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