The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Two horizontally oriented photos juxtaposed one atop the other depicting the same six people three decades apart. In both photos they have short hair and medium-light to medium skin tones and sit three in a row in front, three standing in a row behind. The upper photo is black-and-white, each person wearing similar, medium-dark colored collared shirts and the bottom left two pageboy caps. In the color photo below, they each wear different clothes, some with stripes, some collar-less, and one in a blue blazer.

Middle School

1999

Hai Bo

(Chinese, b. 1962)
China, 20th century
gelatin silver print and chromogenic print (diptych)
Overall: 81.2 x 58.4 cm (31 15/16 x 23 in.)
Gift of Richard Born 2019.306
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

What we call the Mao suit was first advocated in the 1910s by Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, who wanted to create a national dress for China.

Description

Hai Bo acknowledges the changes wrought by time and politics when he has his family and friends pose in the same arrangement as group portraits taken of them 3 decades earlier during the communist era, which stressed a collective identity. Juxtaposed as diptychs with the historic images, the 1990s portraits reveal not just the aging of the sitters, but also their relative prosperity and freedom to express their individuality.
  • Hai Bo (the artist), Beijing, China
    (Karen Smith)
    c. 2004-06
    Richard Born Collection, New York, NY
    December 2, 2019
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Refocusing Photography: China at the Millenium. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 8-November 16, 2025).
  • {{cite web|title=Middle School|url=false|author=Hai Bo|year=1999|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2019.306