Art Exhibit On Chinese Rural Life Opens Jan. 28

The lifestyle of rural China will be explored in the exhibit "The Good Earth: Folk Art and Artifacts from the Chinese Countryside," which opens Wednesday in the Martin Museum of Art in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Building at Baylor University. The exhibit will run through March 26.
"The Good Earth" includes 25 large, colorful paintings and 15 children's toys and clothing articles from rural China. These works of art were created by farmers in Huxian County, a rural area of central China that is similar to the agriculturally-dominant Midwest in the United States. These Chinese farmers were trained to be muralists during the Chinese cultural revolution.
To put the art works and artifacts into context and reveal some details in the paintings that might not be readily seen by viewers, descriptive labels written by a Chinese scholar of popular culture accompany each piece in the exhibit.
The national tour of "The Good Earth" is being coordinated by ExhibitsUSA, a national division of the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Support to ExhibitsUSA is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, H&R Block Foundation, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Phillips Petroleum Foundation and Union Pacific Foundation.
The Martin Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and during performances by the Baylor University Theater. There is no admission charge.
For more information, contact Dr. Heidi Hornik, assistant professor of art history and director of the Martin Museum, at 710-1867