Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Oral history interview with Xiaoze Xie, 2010 May 10-11

Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Xie, Xiaoze, 1966-  Search this
Interviewer:
Riedel, Mija, 1958-  Search this
Subject:
United States. General Services Administration. Design Excellence and the Arts Oral History Project  Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Place of publication, production, or execution:
California
Physical Description:
58 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 6 memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hrs., 8 min.
Summary:
An interview of Xiaoze Xie conducted 2010 May 10 and 11, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's U.S. General Services Administration, Design for Excellence and the Arts oral history project at Xie's studio in Stanford, California.
Xie speaks of growing up in a rural area of southern China; the incorporation of historical events into his work; the development of his series Library in the US and China; his education, including attending graduate school for architecture at the Central Academy of Art and Design in Beijing and at the University of North Texas for painting; the outbreak of the pro-democracy student movement in China in 1989; his first big artwork in the US, Duet; the incorporation of Photorealism in his work; his piece Flags and Banners, which used existing photographs as source images; the process of making his paintings using newspapers as source images; his GSA commission, Iowa Reports; the urgency he felt to create political work after September 11, 2001; comparisons of his work with that of other contemporary American and Chinese artists; and his influences including Gerhard Richter. Xie also recalls Vincent Falsetta, Vernon Fisher, Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian, Liu Haisu, Wu Zuoren, and others.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Xiaoze Xie, 2010 May 10-11. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Funding:
Funding for this interview was provided by the U.S. General Services Administration, Design Excellence and the Arts.
Biography Note:
Interviewee Xiaoze Xie (1966- ) is a Chinese American visual artist and professor based in Palo Alto, California. Interviewer Mija Riedel (1958- ) is a writer and independent scholar in San Francisco, California.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Asian American art  Search this
Asian American artists  Search this
Chinese American art  Search this
Chinese American artists  Search this
Asian American painters  Search this
Asian American curators  Search this
Asian American video artists  Search this
Asian American educators  Search this
Theme:
Asian American  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)15806
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)289264
AAA_collcode_xie10
Theme:
Asian American
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_289264