Made in Asia Catalogue

Li Tianbing (b. 1974)
Li Tianbing is a Chinese artist born in Guilin, China in 1974. When he was 12 years old, he sold
a cow and used the proceeds to purchase his first camera, with which he has been traversing the
mountains in Fujian province ever since, taking portraits of the people who live in the impoverished,
rural villages. Entirely self-taught, he uses black-and-white film, sometimes adding touches of color
by hand. Rather than naming the individuals in his portraits, Li labels each one “Comrade”, adhering
to the Communist form of address. Through his decades of work, he has amassed a straightforward,
subtle, and sensitive visual record of multiple generations of people, who have lived through
momentous transitions in China’s history, including independence from colonial rule, the Cultural
Revolution, and rapid modernization.
Moi et mon frère avec Deng Xiaoping, 2011
Oil on canvas . 63 x 80.7 in | 160 x 205 cm
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