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Xu Bing, 1st Class, 2011. Detail. Photo courtesy of © Museum Associates/LACMA.
Xu Bing, 1st Class, 2011. Detail. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.

Xu Bing 徐冰

Chinese, born 1955

Artist Profile

In the late 1980s Xu Bing garnered international attention for his formal experiments with the Chinese written script by using the traditional medium of woodblock carving and printing to produce an extensive series of nonsense characters. Since then Xu has expanded this interest to explore the ways in which the written script could bridge different systems of writing and engage audiences across different cultures.

Xu has continued the theme of cultural intersections through a variety of other works that incorporate a much wider variety of media, materials, and themes, including ink rubbings, stencils, glass, scrolls, computer manipulations, and surveillance videos, as well as organic materials and living animals.

Xu’s ambitious Tobacco Project (2000–2011) combines these various interests. In 2000, during a residency at Duke University, Xu started his research on tobacco, its consumption, and its global circulation. Using tobacco as both material and subject, the artist explores the history and production of the cigarette, global trade, and marketing in his long-term Tobacco Project. Tobacco was one of the first products from the United States to enter the Chinese market. Fascinated by this US-China connection, Xu transformed different aspects of raw tobacco leaves, cigarettes, and cigarette packaging and other marketing materials to explore the interwoven histories of the global economy, commodities, and Chinese art history.

Xu Bing. Photo courtesy of Xu Bing Studio.
“Humans and tobacco exist in a very strange relationship . . . I have always thought that it is like the relationship between lovers. It is very awkward, but also very much a relationship of dependence.”
—Xu Bing 1

Footnotes

Works on View

Smart Museum of Art

1st Class, 2011

500,000 “1st Class” brand cigarettes, adhesive, and carpet
480 x 180 in. (1219.2 x 457.2 cm)

Collection of the artist

Xu Bing, 1st Class, 2011. Installation view, The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019–2020. Photo courtesy of © Museum Associates/LACMA.
Xu Bing, 1st Class, 2011. Installation view, The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019–20. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.
Smart Museum of Art

Tobacco Book, 2011

Tobacco leaves, paper, and cardboard, rubber-stamped with passage from A True Discourse on the Present State of Virginia by Ralph Hamor (1615)
53 3/4 x 39 3/4 x 3 7/8 in. (136.5 x 101 x 9.8 cm)

Collection of the artist

Xu Bing, Tobacco Book, 2011. Photo courtesy of © Museum Associates/LACMA.
Xu Bing, Tobacco Book, 2011. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.
Smart Museum of Art

Traveling Down the River, 2011

Burned cigarette on a scroll in glass case
Scroll: 10 x 275 in. (25 x 699 cm)

Collection of the artist

Xu Bing, Traveling Down the River, 2011. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.
Xu Bing, Traveling Down the River, 2011. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.
Smart Museum of Art

Study for Tobacco Book, 1999

Tobacco leaves, pencil, and ink on paper
11 x 8 1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm)

Collection of the artist

Xu Bing, Study for Tobacco Book, 1999. Photo courtesy of Xu Bing studio.
Xu Bing, Study for Tobacco Book, 1999. Photo courtesy of Xu Bing Studio.
Smart Museum of Art

Study for Chinese Spirit I, 1999

Pencil and collage on paper
11 x 8 1/2 in. (28 x 21.6 cm)

Collection of the artist

Xu Bing, Study for Chinese Spirit I, 1999. Photo courtesy of Xu Bing studio.
Xu Bing, Study for Chinese Spirit I, 1999. Photo courtesy of Xu Bing Studio.
Smart Museum of Art

Study for Chinese Spirit II, 1999

Pencil and collage on paper
11 x 8 1/2 in. (28 x 21.6 cm)

Collection of the artist

Xu Bing, Study for Chinese Spirit II, 1999. Photo courtesy of Xu Bing studio.
Xu Bing, Study for Chinese Spirit II, 1999. Photo courtesy of Xu Bing Studio.
Smart Museum of Art

Study for Tobacco Project, 1999–2000

Pencil and collage on paper
11 x 8 1/2 in. (28 x 21.6 cm)

Collection of the artist

Xu Bing, Study for Tobacco Project, 1999-2000. Photo courtesy of Xu Bing studio.
Xu Bing, Study for Tobacco Project, 1999–2000. Photo courtesy of Xu Bing Studio.

Working Process