Album
- Gallery: Room 33
- Maker: Ding Yi
- Made in: Shanghai (city)
- Date: 2013
- Object type: album, painting
- Materials: paper; textile
- Museum number: 2020,3010.1
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
"Seventy Circles" presents seventy individual circular forms painted in a single color scheme. Created in 2013 by Ding Yi in Shanghai, this album features monochromatic circles in different arrangements, painted with pencil and acrylic on rice paper. The delicate compositions are layered with subtle textures and patterns, contrasting with the plain white background.
Ding Yi is known for incorporating crosses and grids into his work, and these elements appear here in a softer, more introspective form. Unlike his larger-scale pieces, which are bold and abstract, this album feels more personal and reflective. It can be viewed like a handscroll, a traditional Chinese format, connecting it to cultural practices of ink and calligraphy.
Each circle was painted in Ding Yi’s home over time, giving the work a quiet intimacy. While modern in style, it reflects traditional ideas about nature and change, suggesting a bridge between past and present in Chinese art.
See it in person
Album is on display in Room 33 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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