"Life is Sweet, Sour, Bitter and Spicy": An Interview with Ma Desheng
By Sylvia Tsai
Ma Desheng’s exuberance is contagious, his personality captivating the attention of those around him. The Beijing-born and Paris-based artist is one of China’s more outspoken provocateurs. In 1979, just three years after the death of Mao Zedong, Ma and a group of artists—including Huang Rui, Wang Keping, Qu Leilei and Ai Weiwei—founded the Stars Group (Xingxing), the first post-Mao avant-garde collective to challenge the oppression and censorship of the communist regime. Working in different media, Ma has consistently used his art to fight for the freedom of expression. ArtAsiaPacific sat down with the artist during his recent trip to Hong Kong, for his solo exhibition at Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, and spoke to him about the evolution of his works, his opinion about the rise of ink art and the art market.
Ma Desheng, founding member of the Stars Group and early advocate of reinvigorating ink painting, in front of one of his large-scale acrylic canvases. Photo by Andrew Cohen for ArtAsiaPacific.
