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Exhibition Dates: November 21, 2024–April 8, 2025
Exhibition Location: The Met Fifth Avenue, The Great Hall
(New York, November 21, 2024) – The Metropolitan Museum of Art today unveiled two monumental works of calligraphy by Taiwanese artist Tong Yang-Tze (born 1942, Shanghai, based in Taipei) for the Museum’s Great Hall Commission. The works are installed on the two eastern walls of the Great Hall that frame the Museum entrance. Dialogue marks the artist’s first major project in the United States as well as the third project in a series of commissions for The Met’s historic space, following works by Kent Monkman (2019) and Jacolby Satterwhite (2023).
The exhibition is made possible by the Director’s Fund, Mr. T.H. Tung, Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang, and Jenny Yeh, Winsing Arts Foundation.
Tong is one of the most celebrated artists working exclusively in calligraphy today. Best known for making calligraphy in monumental scale, Tong brings Chinese characters into dialogue with three-dimensional space and pushes the conceptual and compositional boundaries of the art form, while remaining dedicated to calligraphy’s raison d’être as the art of writing. Her commitment to written characters is rooted in her belief in their centrality in Chinese culture and calligraphy’s capacity for visual, emotional, and social impact beyond linguistic barriers. Working on the floor in her home, she manipulates the movement and tension in the brushstrokes—the foremost quality in calligraphy. The oversized characters pose physical, formal, and conceptual challenges, while offering new compositional possibilities and viewing experiences.
“Tong Yang-Tze’s groundbreaking approach to calligraphy reinterprets this time-honored art form, fostering a compelling dialogue around cultural identity and expression,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “Tong’s installation transforms the Great Hall into a dynamic space for engagement, inviting visitors to explore the intersection of art and language. We’re honored to include her work as part of our commission series, as we continue showcasing diverse, contemporary voices within the context of our encyclopedic collection.”
In Dialogue, Tong chose to write two of her favorite texts. Stones from other mountains can refine our jade, from The Book of Odes (9th–8th century BCE), calls for the embrace of differences. Go where it is right, stop when one must, the words of Song Dynasty poet-scholar Su Shi in 1100, underscores the importance of self-restraint. Tong blended regular and running scripts in both works, maintaining the legibility of the characters while playing with the compositions. Because of the museum context and the scale of the works—Stones from other mountains can refine our jade measures 11.80 x 23.82 feet (360.1 x 726.4 cm) and Go where it is right, stop when one must is 11.80 x 23.85 feet (360.1 x 727.2 cm)—the calligraphy take on a social aspect, not limited only for private consumption or self-cultivation.
The works’ commanding presence marks a rare occasion when calligraphy, and ink on paper, are displayed in the Great Hall. They prompt dialogues with mid-century American abstract paintings in the Museum’s Modern and Contemporary Art galleries, as well as with the historical calligraphy collections in the galleries displaying Chinese, Japanese, and Islamic art, emphasizing the art of writing as an enduring and living art form and a catalyst for painterly explorations in modern and contemporary art.
In Tong’s Stones from other mountains can refine our jade (他山之石可以攻玉), the characters shan 山 (mountain), shi 石 (stone), and yu 玉 (jade) anchor the composition in thick black ink. Size variation between each character creates a visual rhythm. At center left of the work, Tong throws a dot in yu 玉 (jade) toward shi 石 (stone) to connect the two words and accentuate the action, and sound, of refinement.
Compared to the other commissioned work, the calligraphy of Go where it is right, stop when one must (行於其所當行，止於其不得不止) is more abstract and painterly, as the 13 characters in the phrase occupy the whole expanse of the composition. Tong energizes the field of ink marks by interlocking the lines and dots of separate characters and loosening the column-based writing convention. Five characters, xing 行 (move forward, go), yu 於 (at, as), qi 其 (one [pronoun]), zhi 止 (stop), and bu 不 (not) are twice repeated in the text and each written differently—an act by Tong to challenge herself in composition and convey the sense of freedom and control in the art of writing.
“The phrases that Tong has chosen, especially within the Museum and its surrounding cultural context, are grounded in tolerance and create dialogues with viewers about the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge,” said Lesley Ma, the Ming Chu Hsu and Daniel Xu Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Met and curator of the project. “It is within this long and fascinating history of lines and text in visual culture that Tong’s work offers new points of connections right at the beginning of one’s journey within The Met—in the Great Hall.”
Tong’s project is the third in The Met’s series of commissions for its Great Hall, which has previously featured work by Kent Monkman (2019) and Jacolby Satterwhite (2023). It joins The Genesis Facade Commission and The Roof Garden Commission to form The Met’s suite of contemporary commissions inviting artists to create new works of art that establish a dialogue between their practice, The Met collection, the physical Museum, and The Met’s audiences.
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The Great Hall Commission:
Tong Yang-Tze, Dialogue will be on view from November 21, 2024 through April 8, 2025.
About the Artist
Having practiced calligraphy since her youth, Tong Yang-Tze was trained in oil painting in Taiwan (BFA, National Normal University, Taipei, 1966) and the United States (MFA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1970). After a brief stint in graphic design in New York City, she came to prominence in 1980s Taiwan with calligraphy, despite its waning influence in contemporary art. Tong’s calligraphy takes inspiration from the styles of masters in pre-modern China and the scale and compositions of mid-20th-century Western abstract paintings. Writing well-known phrases selected from classical Chinese texts and enlarging the characters are her key strategies to connect to the audience. By merging the practices of painting and calligraphy and creating new compositional possibilities and viewing experience, she repositions the art of writing in contemporary visual culture. Her work has been exhibited at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; Taipei Fine Arts Museum; M+, Hong Kong; BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels; and the Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York; among others. In 2012, Tong received the National Cultural Award, the highest honor of its kind in Taiwan.
Credits and Related Content
The Great Hall Commission: Tong Yang-Tze, Dialogue is conceived by the artist in consultation with Lesley Ma, the Ming Chu Hsu and Daniel Xu Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Met.
The Museum will offer a variety of related programs, including An Evening with Artist Tong Yang-Tze, when Tong will join curator Lesley Ma in conversation about her commission and creative process.
Education programs are made possible by the Ministry of Culture, R.O.C. (Taiwan) and Taipei Cultural Center in New York.
Future programming details will be posted on The Met website as they become available.
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Image: Tong Yang-Tze (born 1942, Shanghai, based in Taipei). Installation view of The Great Hall Commission: Tong Yang-Tze, Dialogue, 2024. Courtesy of the artist. Image credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo by Hyla Skopitz
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