“To Get Rich Is Glorious.” Artist: Tao Hongjing. Price: $8,000.
This piece of neon may not pass the I’d-want-it-in-my-living-room-forever test, but it is one of my favorite pieces in “30 Degrees: 30 Years 30 Artists 30 Perspectives,” a show curated by George Michell and Brian Wallace, up now at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing. Closes December 13th. The phrase—“To get rich is glorious”—is the simplified version of what Deng Xiaoping told his country a generation ago: “Rang yi bu fen ren xian fu qi lai,” he declared. “Let some people get rich first.” It unshackled China’s economy, and created the tycoons and super-growth we see today.
