WORK WAS CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR THE MORGAN’S RENZO PIANODESIGNED GILBERT COURT AND IS THE LARGEST VERSION OF THE LIVING WORD THE ARTIST HAS PRODUCED

The Morgan Library & Museum announced today that Chinese artist Xu Bing will create a new, larger version of his celebrated work The Living Word specifically for the Morgan’s soaring glass-enclosed Gilbert Court. The Living Word 3 will be on view from July 15. The project is the second in a series of annual summer installations of works by contemporary artists in the Renzo Pianodesigned space. 

Xu Bing has described The Living Word as a “floating, iridescent cloud of calligraphy” that traces the Chinese character niao, meaning “bird,” from its present-day usage in simplified Chinese to its ancient pictographic expression. The Morgan installation will comprise approximately 400 carved and painted acrylic characters, rising from the Gilbert Court’s floor to its fifty-foot ceiling. It will be the largest of The Living Word series to date. A selection of the artist’s original sketches for the project will also be on view.