Liu Ye, Pierre Menard

Esther Schipper is pleased to announce Liu Ye's solo exhibition, Pierre Menard at the New Century Art Foundation, Beijing. 

The exhibition brings together works from Liu Ye's Book Painting series related to the publications of Karl Blossfeldt from collections around the world and will introduce these paintings to audiences in China for the first time.

The title of the exhibition, Pierre Menard, refers to a fictional character in a short story by Luis Borges. Entitled Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote, Borges’ 1939 story tells of a character, Menard, whose most ambitious and unparalleled work is Quixote, which coincides, in some cases verbatim, with specific chapters of Cervantes' famous book Don Quixote. Menard's intention is not to imitate or mechanically copy but to create an authentic "Quixote." Liu Ye read Borges' Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote after completing his series of book painting works related to Karl Blossfeldt, and recognized a similar ambition or delusion in this fictional character.