SAN MARINO, CA.- A special installation of a new work by visual artist Tang Qingnian 唐慶年 is on display in The Huntington's Chinese Garden through Sept. 23. "Tang Qingnian: An Offering to Roots" 唐慶年：根之祭 features full-size prints of five monumental banner paintings, the largest of them 18 feet in length, suspended from a bamboo framework above the water of the Chinese Garden lake. Two years in the making, Tang's series of ink paintings memorializes the devastating wildfires that ravaged California in 2017 and 2018.

In addition to the banner paintings, which have been printed on weather-proof material for outdoor display, a small selection of original hand-scrolls and albums by the artist are on view inside the adjacent Waveless Boat Pavilion.Tang is the 2019 Cheng Family Foundation Artist-in-Residence at The Huntington.

“Tang felt compelled to respond to California’s wildfires, taking brush in hand to sketch roots and wood torn from the earth,” said Bloom. “In creating An Offering to Roots, he also drew inspiration from historical Chinese poetry that likens the fate of trees to the fate of humans—a message with particular resonance as society confronts the effects of climate change.”

During his year-long residency at the Huntington, Tang is also creating an original video artwork—a “moving ink painting,” as he describes it, inspired by the four seasons in the Chinese Garden. The work will be screened as the culmination of his residency in spring 2020, during The Huntington’s Centennial Celebration.

The Beijing-born artist was one of the first supporters of China’s “New Wave” art movement in the 1980s, serving as a member of the organizing committee for the “China/Avant-Garde” exhibition held in Beijing in February 1989. Since relocating to the USA in 1991, Tang has been engaged with visual creation in various media, including painting, sand drawing, sculpture, and screen printing.