From Ancient Bronze to Modern Design: The Book Design Project of Lu Xun and Tao Yuanqing

• In Event: The Politics of Ornament: Ideology, Transnationalism, and Modern Design

Abstract

The paper explores the book cover design project initiated by China’s foremost modern writer Lu Xun (1881-1936) and the artist Tao Yuanqing (1893-1929) in the 1920s. More specifically, it focuses on how Tao Yuanqing transformed patterns on ancient Chinese ritual bronzes into a new vocabulary for modern design. Through his work, the modularity and abstraction inherent in the early Chinese zoomorphic designs were reconfigured into intriguing graphic works gracing the covers of some of the most influential modern literature in China. Under Lu Xun’s influential patronage, modern Chinese art and literature were joined by the freshly imported concept of design. Their collaboration is one manifestation of the deep irony embodied by the concept of design worldwide. Design aspires to replace specific cultural and historical references in visual art with an international language of geometry and abstraction. The irony is that many design histories look inward into a constructed national past in order to find forms that are seemingly unique to that culture. The challenge of creating a visual art simultaneously international and resonant with China’s past was met in the book cover design project between Lu Xun and Tao Yuanqing.

Author

• Wei Ren, Dickinson College