Magician with Small Warrior and Bat 1922

Kuang Xü made this striking print, ‘Magician with Small Warrior and Bat’ with what appears to be a woodblock on paper sometime before 1909. There’s a radical kind of simplicity to the mark-making. The whole image is rendered in flat, almost stencil-like red shapes on a white background. I am drawn to the fact that the print isn’t trying to trick you into thinking it is anything other than what it is: a surface that has been printed on. It’s so upfront about the process, about the labor that went into its making. Look at the way the red flattens everything— the folds in the magician’s robe, the warrior's costume, the bat in the sky. These stark, shadowless shapes give the whole scene a wonderfully playful, cartoonish quality. There’s a kind of unpretentious joy in the simple act of making. There is a directness of expression that reminds me a little of Matisse's late cut-outs, a feeling of immediacy and joy. It is a great example of how art can be an ongoing conversation.