One: Xu Bing at the Brooklyn Museum

Focusing on a major new gift to the Brooklyn Museum’s world-renowned collection of Chinese art, One: Xu Bing highlights the painting Square Word Calligraphy: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Walt Whitman (2018). Created specifically for the Brooklyn Museum in consultation with curator Susan L. Beningson, this painting by one of China’s most important living artists celebrates Xu Bing’s close relationship with Brooklyn, where he lived in the 1990s and still has a studio today. Square Word Calligraphy: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Walt Whitman pays homage to Walt Whitman, the famous American poet, who served as an early librarian at the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library Association (the Brooklyn Museum’s predecessor). His now-iconic poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” is part of his collection Leaves of Grass and celebrates the idea that all of us are united in our shared human experience. 2019 marks Whitman’s 200th birthday, and this exhibition includes material from the Brooklyn Museum Archives to celebrate his relationship to the Museum.