Ma Gu Gives her Birthday Greetings
Material: Ivory
Artist:Li Dingning Period:Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) Height: over 1m / Weight: about 50kg |
This Ma Gu is made in the modern period
during Culturla Revolution by an ivory carving master, Li Dingning. Hence, he
combines the tradition with new elements. Ma Gu is an immortal of longevity and
Li makes use of traditional southern carving technique which is round carving
to create this work. On the other hand, Ma Gu is displayed as a traditional
court lady and court lady is regarded as a northern carving theme. This element
is massively used in Li’s works with the mix of lingnan carving technique.
Besides, Ma Gu is made in human size and it looks very elegant and humane which
is different from the past. In the traditional way of making a figure, it is
relatively small and simple due to the restriction of the size of the ivory.
However, Li creates Ma Gu with the combination of a complete ivory to be the
main body and other fragmented ivory material to make up the hands or other
decorations. The immersion of northern carving content and modern technique becomes
more common in Guangdong ivory carving. Hence, there is a concern of diluting
the original Lingnan style.
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