Taiwanese artist Tong Yang-tze (董陽孜) has been announced as one of the selected artists for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s (Met) art commissions in 2024. For The Met, she will create two new calligraphic pieces, which are set to be exhibited from Nov. 21, 2024, to Apr. 8, 2025.
For more than four decades, Tong has dedicated herself as a full-time artist, showcasing her calligraphy talents in over 60 exhibitions worldwide. She is famous for her large-scale calligraphic pieces done in cursive script, with her work often described as vigorous, bold, and unrestrained. The structure of her characters and their layout reveal a uniquely modern interpretation and serve as the basis for a new calligraphic style.
Notably, this commission marks her first public exhibition in the U.S.
The Met highlighted Tong as one of today's foremost artists in Chinese calligraphy, emphasizing her renown for creating large-scale pieces. They announced that she will design two large-scale calligraphy featuring Chinese texts, decorating the museum’s Great Hall.
The Met also said that 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.
The Met revealed its 2024 commissions lineup on Nov. 29, which includes Taiwanese artist Tong Yang-tze, Kosovo-born artist Petrit Halilaj, and South Korean sculptor Lee Bul.
Besides Tong, Petrit Halilaj’s installation will be presented at the museum’s Roof Garden from Apr. 29 to Oct. 27, 2024, and statues by Lee Bul will be displayed at the museum’s facade from Sept. 12, 2024, to May 27, 2025.