the sanya collection
DESCRIPTION
Collection of works in ink by greatest Chinese contemporary artistsTRANSCRIPT
The Sanya Collection Josep Soler i Casanellas
The history behind the only time than a few of the greatest Chinese contemporary artists met together and used traditional
techniques. A set of 28 works 140x70 cm in brush and ink on xuan paper did in 2007 during a Gathering to Sanya .
www.artantide.es
2012
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Introduction
This book is about friendship.
That’s a story of friendship double. First, the story of the encounter of a generation of contemporary Chinese artists
unprecedented group of the first artists who embraced contemporary art in China, a project around one of the most
important personalities of Chinese art, Lü Peng. Second, and from the purchase of works of these artists, searching and
finding friendship with Lü.
About the history of friendship of the artists and how born The Sanya collection was we will have to let’s talk Lü. Sure than
in the memory of the artists and the material collected by Lü will be much material and stories. But that must be Lü who
bring to light in the future. In any case, it is a story unique in the world of art, as individual and competitive like it is. Only
once has happen in the history of contemporary art, in the incipient boom years of 2007, with whom later became the
greatest artists and where they worked together in a series of works using the techniques of traditional Chinese art, far
from the oil, the acrylic and canvas usually used in their works.
From the history of friendship with Lü is still continuing and I hope will continue for years. From the difficulties of finding
him, the difficulties of communication, the difficulties to understand what I searched, have passed 5 years of exchanges of
ideas, reflections, projects to promote Chinese contemporary art beyond the borders of China, and encounters in
Amsterdam, Venice, Beijing, Chengdu, and Barcelona.
China in 5 years has changed dramatically in economic terms and will hopefully do also in political terms. It is a world
distant yet completely closed to us, very difficult to understand his dynamics, but hopefully with further and deeply
collaboration of trade, ideas and travel we will promote mutual understanding and open the Country to new forms of
freedom.
JSC. March 2012
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The Origin: how become a collector accidentally
I received the Christie’s catalogue for the auction on Nov 25, 2007 and I registered because I wanted a Yue Minjun if the price were to be within my budget. Turning the pages over and over again for several days I realized The Sanya collection and the explanation attached, but I believed this would be very expensive, considering the Christie’s estimated price. The auction confirmed me that Yue was unaffordable, but regarding the Sanya collection… I was surprised there was not a big interest during the auction.
The auction started with bad signs, one hour delay in Christies live due to excess of public. That means only one thing: too much interest, bids too high. In fact, despite a fair budget, I only can bid at the beginning of the lots. I lost the Yue's, the Tang's... The Sanya collection approaches but my chances were very few, all the lots before reached a very high prices, the lot before, an oil on paper by Zhang Xiaogang, reached 1.800.000HKD, plus auction fees, plus shipment, plus import taxes... The Sanya collection contained at least two very nice Zhang's, one Yue Minjun face smiling, Wang’s, Zeng’s lines, Zhou blossoms, Mao Paternalism, Ye birds... and despite there were in ink, the price will be high, I thought. The bid started, one click, answer, another click, I thought now will start the war, nothing, a voice “one”, the amount in green in my screen, again “two for internet bidder”, pause, ????, estrange, “third for internet bidder”. It was mine!!! Where was the mistake, I told to me. 28 works, greatest contemporary artists, color ink, traditional tools... I did not understand why so few interest, I had to wait for receiving the works in order to be sure I did not make a mistake. Which? I do not know, but someone sure. They arrived, no mistake, on the contrary, the works arrived framed, and they look much nicer than in the catalog's picture where they were altogether attached in two pages as drawings of a child. Then the problem was that I waited for 28 pieces of paper and I received 28 framed works, where to put them? Where to storage them? Well, that's another history.
I do not understand this lack of interest because of several reasons:
- The honorable purpose of the sale
- The idea of the collection
- The works are by the most valuable contemporary artists
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- They are unique and rare works because they are painted by contemporary artists with traditional tools
- They are unique because they link contemporary and tradition
- They are unique and rare because the artists never did that and probably never will do this again
- Someone who would like to support the idea could bid for the woks.
Well, the only reason I can think of is that people only want to speculate, to buy recognizable works and in canvas support. They do not think at long term and about the intrinsic value of the works. Despite all this, I think it is a very good business; the works of Zhang Xiaogang alone could get a big price. The lot before was an oil on paper (52x76cm) sold at 1.800.000 HKD (160.000€ or 230.000$) plus 20% buyer’s premium. Any small piece of paper of Basquiat, Warhol or Picasso is valued hundreds of thousands of US dollars. Until I receive the works at home and see them I would not believe the price I paid for them. And considering it is largely the higher price I ever paid for a painting.
Anyway, I wanted to go deep about that even before receiving the paintings because I would like to know who painted what because not all the works were recognizable and any label was attached. Three works of Zhang Xiaogang were very recognizable, one Yue Minjun with a smile face also, Wang’s for his let’s say easy work, Ye Yongqing for his traditional work, Mao Xuhui for his scissors, Zeng Fanzhi for his lines and Zhou for his early landscapes, other less.
My idea is to maintain the collection with all the information and materials, and the “spirit” which drove the gathering first and the collection afterward. On top of this I would like to buy, step by step and depending on the budget available each year, one work from each one of the artists* who went to the gathering. I believe “the Sanya Collection” could be an exhibition per se. But thinking about that, I told myself why not to suggest Lü Peng to do something more and take advantage of the great idea of the gathering and sold the works all together like a Collection: “the Sanya Collection”. To do something more to help him also in to rise founds.
Why not to write a book about your Sanya gathering? I very much liked the description in the catalogue and the answers from the artists, therefore why not to explain it in a book. A book containing an explanation of the works, but also with the travel comments and landscape descriptions, the ideas emerged during the gathering, the situation of the artists in the art world, their opinions and thoughts, asking them for contributions, anecdotes, their experiences in this world which is changing so fast and so positively for them… I think you had a unique opportunity to share a trip experience with the most
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important contemporary artists, all together. Capitalist market moves very fast and probably they will never meet again like this. A book between an “on the road” novel, a critic research and an art book.
Once received the collection I can affirm that it has been a great acquisition, the works framed win in quality and become more powerful, to see the fragility of do so by ink much more. Each work has something in se, but the interpretation of the Zhang works with traditional tools is extremely qualitative. The exercise of Yue Minjun ahead of smile faces is also appreciated (a curiosity, the work was prepared to hold in vertical, probably it’s difficult to understand if you are not familiar with his work and see it from away), the Zhou blossoms, the watermelon of Zeng... Each work is great per se, but the whole is magnificent, unique and rare. I’m sure, the value of each work separately is bigger than the whole collection, but that’s the difference between speculate and become a collector.
Thanks to Mao Xuhui, Wang Guangyi, Wu Shanzhuan, Ye Yongqing, Yue Minjun, Zeng Fanzhi, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhang Peili and Zhou Chunya for maintain this spirit of a generation of Chinese painting. And thanks to Lü Peng for maintain them linked.
JSC. December 2007.
*Note in 2012: It has been impossible because of the prices achieved by each of them.
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The Story behind the Works from 'Sanya Elegant
Gathering'
The idea of having a relaxing gathering with friends has been on my mind for a while. Since 1993, Chinese artists have
frequently participated in international and many other exhibitions. Since the late 90s, and especially nowadays, few artists
have been able to relax and rest because of their active involvement in exhibitions and activities. I started to write 20th
Century Chinese Art History in 2004, and at that time I talked to Wang Guangyi, Wu Shanzhuan and Zhou Chunya about a
possible gathering in the future. The chance came as my book was going to be published in January 2007. I knew I could
get the artists together under the pretext of discussing it. I began to contact Wang Guangyi, Zhou Chunya, Wu Shanzhuan,
Mao Xuhui, Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun, Zeng Fanzhi, Li Luming, Ye Yongqing, Yue Minjun and Zhang Peili in December
2006, and invited them for a gathering in Sanya. Everybody was strongly interested in this idea and so the "elegant
gathering" by the sea was confirmed in mid-December. Unfortunately, because I adjusted the meeting time later, Fang
Lijun could not make this appointment as he had to go to Hong Kong for an activity.
Of course, this was not only a vacation. I arranged a "brush meeting", where all the artists gather together and paint on
the same subject. Not only because this was a traditional custom for Chinese scholars when they met together at
gatherings, but also I was thinking that I could bring the calligraphy and paintings to auction after the gathering, and use
the proceedings to support AAA's (Asian Art Archive) academic research and my own art history teaching program. Of
course, I do not see this "brush meeting" as a formal academic activity. I asked my friend in Nanjing to purchase xuan
paper, brush, ink and four albums for me, as my plan was to let the artists paint without restraint in a relaxing
environment with our traditional utilities instead of oil paint.
Our gathering started on the evening of January 9th. We flew to Tianhong Resort in Sanya from different cities that day,
and Zhou Chunya was the last one to arrive. Tianhong Resort was the smallest hotel in Sanya's Yalong Bay, thus it was
most suitable for a private gathering, for we could avoid of the crowds of tourists. After dinner that evening, the artists
finished four albums and a few individual ink on xuan paper paintings in the meeting room by the resort's swimming pool.
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In this most relaxed and casual atmosphere, most of the abstract ink works were completed by brush and, in some cases,
hands. The artists that were present are not considered traditional Chinese painters, and they seldom use brushes or ink.
Consequently, they were able to apply ink in a totally free way. Zhang Peili completed most of his works by hand.
Everybody was so excited, and some paintings were results of group efforts.
We went to Mount Nan the next day. None of us would have thought that one day, we, the modern artists, the avant-garde
artists, the pioneer artists, and the contemporary artists, would worship in a Buddhist temple with incense. All of us felt
that time had flown quickly in the past decades, and that our understanding and perception of life had changed
significantly. The artists donated generously to the temple, and the scene of Wang Guangyi, Zhang Xiaogang and Zhang
Peili worshiping devotedly in the temple impressed me deeply. We returned to the resort after dinner, and everybody
remained in a peaceful state of mind. We talked about the past and present state of Chinese art, people and circumstances.
In a peaceful atmosphere, Zhang Xiaogang, Mao Xuhui, Ye Yongqing and Zhou Chunya completed different number of
paintings, and most of the consignments for this auction were completed that night.
I have included many contemporary artists in my book 20th Century Chinese Art History. The place that important events
have taken in Chinese art history, from the Modernism campaign in the late 70s to today's contemporary art, is an issue
that concerns most of us. In fact, I hoped through this gathering I could listen to opinions from different artists on this
matter. Though their thoughts and opinions may not be bases for my future research on Chinese art history, their
feedbacks were beneficial nonetheless.
To my great joy, I managed to achieve my goal. As a member of AAA's academy council, I believe that AAA's work is most
helpful for the research in Asian contemporary arts (including Chinese art, of course). It is therefore my continuous goal to
contribute to this cause. At the same time, as a lecturer in the Department of History of Art at the China Academy of Fine
Arts, I hope that my students can have achievements in their studies of contemporary arts. They need to collect
information and interview artists in their research, which requires financial aids. I would like to take any opportunity to help
their endeavors, and that the "Sanya Elegant Gathering" is an excellent way to do this. I hope that these works completed
by the artists whilst in high spirits can be sold successfully and collected by those who really appreciate them; and that the
proceeds will fund AAA's research and part of my art history teachings.
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To take such an opportunity and carry out this idea relies on the artists. Therefore I would like to thank all the artists who
attended "Sanya Elegant Gathering": Only because of your generous participation that this charitable cause was possible.
The images and marks you have left are historical memories. I would also like to thank the AAA. My idea was supported
and encouraged by Claire Hsu and Jane Debevoise, who helped turn these works into something that will benefit AAA's
cause. In addition I would like to thank Christie's Hong Kong for their understanding and constructive advice to put these
works as a charity auction, which makes the art and the auction particularly special. Thus, I cannot help but express my
appreciation again!
Lü Peng Tuesday, July 10, 2007.
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ZHANG XIAOGANG
Elder Brother, Lu Peng:
I hope you are well. I feel so warm after reading your words about Sanya. I believe what we have discussed, did and
thought in Sanya will show their historic meaning and cultural value as time passes by. I totally agree with the way you
support AAA's work and development by consigning our spontaneous paper works made in Sanya to an auction. Thanks for
all you have done. Regards, and have a nice summer, Zhang Xiaogang June 15th, 2007.
Zhang Xiaogang (张晓刚; born in 1958 in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, in Southwestern China) is a
contemporary Chinese symbolist and surrealist. Paintings in his
Bloodline series are often monochromatic, stylized portraits of
Chinese people, usually with large, dark-pupil eyes, posed in a stiff
manner deliberately reminiscent of family portraits from the 1950s
and 1960s. For years, his works - like those of other avant-garde
artists of his generation - could not be exhibited in China, often
because they were deemed too
modern or questionable.
When Zhang discovered
photographs of his mother as a young beautiful woman during the Cultural Revolution, he
decided to make that a centerpiece of his work. Zhang found the photographs of his
parents as a young couple in 1993. He discovered that his mother had been a very pretty
girl, that she had a romantic streak, and that she loved music, but that due to
circumstances she had become a civil servant. "Society changed her into a different
person," he said. "Personal needs and the demands of society are two different things."
Since then Zhang Xiaogang become the most valued Chinese contemporary artist with a record in April 2011 at Sotheby’s
his earlier work Forever lasting love reached 9.000.000$ (image below name).
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Zhang’s artworks focus on the relationship with past, memory and history. The
artist has always placed an emphasis on the existence of history and memory in
the present. In his works, history exists in the present,
there is no way to erase it, and it is continuously being
revised. It is impossible to not involve history; our
current perception is too derived from our memories.
Zhang has always been a traditional artist, who
expresses man’s experiences and emotions through his
paintings. Those scintillating spots, scars and lines on
his canvases reveal the references to history and the
release of emotions. Such traditional expression and
the insistence on it bring us back to the belief in and
worship of painting’s narrative. His effort is to re-
emphasize the power of emotion and feeling over the “super-flat” and “cool.” More recent works
by Zhang Xiaogang of the Amnesia and Remembrance series deal with the workings of memory.
The artist is interested in how memory can be selective and often inaccurate. Here the artist draws upon elements of his
very early work prior to 1993, light bulbs, and open books with writing, pens etc.
A recent series of canvases has seen Zhang return to the surrealist motifs of his
youth, with severed limbs and detached, but still beating, hearts puncturing
scenes in which figures lounge in chairs amidst a vast industrial landscape. In
2011 -2012, China's most expensive living artist hasn't been allowed to paint
due to fragile health, doctor's orders.
In the Sanya collection all three are incredible works of Zhang, adjusting to his
subjects, but with the lightness, the softness of its lines, the works are even
more sensitive, more ethereal. Have a pulse to keep the lines as thin and a
sublime match the color. A way to return the contemporaneity to traditional or
how the tradition can be contemporary. And yet, the works retain all of its time.
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YUE MINJUN
This great gathering will become a historical memory! This graffiti has recorded our rebellion and craziness! A book of
Chinese art history starts the new era of arts!
Yue Minjun June 18th, 2007
Yue Minjun (岳敏君; born in 1962 in the town of Daqing in Heilongjiang). He was having a hard time at the Oilfield (1980).
He is best known for oil paintings depicting himself in various settings,
frozen in laughter. The roots of Yue Minjun's style can be traced back to
the work of Geng Jianyi, whose work depicted Geng's own laughing face,
which had first inspired Yue.
He has also reproduced this signature image in sculpture, watercolor and
prints. While Yue is often classified as part of the Chinese “Cynical Realist” movement in art
developed in China since 1989, Yue himself rejects this label, while at the same time "doesn't
concern himself about what
people call him." Yue Minjun
work has been called
humorous and sympathetic.
Arguably his paintings
provide a light-hearted
approach to philosophical enquiry and contemplation of
existence.
"Yes, of course the smiles are a trick," he says. "I wanted
to hide the bad feelings behind a smile. In this way
everyone can accept it. This is related to traditional
culture and the history of Chinese literature. You can't
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show what you really want." He added: "In Chinese tradition you can't say things directly. You
have to show something else for the real meaning. I wanted to show a happy smile and show
that behind it is something sad, and even dangerous."
One of the most recognizable artists in the West for their
smiling faces, smiling a self-portrait. One of the artists
trying to evolve, leaving behind these icons. From his
Landscape with No One series in which he removes
figures from historical Chinese socialist paintings and
well-known western paintings. “Typical socialist paintings
in China looked very realistic but were indeed surreal.
They served for heroic fantasies, and the images of great
people or the heroes in the paintings could well justify the
fabricated scenes.”; their smiling faces; to the interpretation of the great traditional
Chinese artists in his Labyrinth series, in this particular works Yue Minjun adopts the
black-and-white technique of Chinese classical painting to reintroduce the precious
Chinese cultural heritage and its wealth of painting epitomized by maestros like Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian, and Xu Beihong,
which the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) suppressed for the reason of being part of the feudalistic “old culture”; or the
last coming back to his firsts motives with a series of pieces re-appropriating classical Christian paintings like The
Annunciation except the main characters are missing leaving empty
structures and buildings. He says he wants to express a sense of loss, of
meaninglessness in the world. And again, it is a trick, a bit cynical and
deceptive. Is he mocking western art? Is he saying the great figures of the
west have disappeared? Or have these works lost their relevance? That, it
seems, is for the art critics and collectors to decipher.
His strokes in The Sanya Collection are strong here, both in the smiling face,
and in the two papers that appear a relationship with nature, a
reinterpretation of the classic landscapes of traditional art.
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ZENG FANZHI
Hello, Lu Peng!
First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me to this Sanya gathering. It was a wonderful gathering. We had the
chance to discuss and recall people and events in 1985, in which I learned and understood a lot. Of course, I agree that
you bring our co-works to auction to support AAA and your work! Thanks again! Zeng Fanzhi July 3'd, 2007.
Zeng Fanzhi (曾梵志 born 1964 in Wuhan). He is noted for his Mask series of portraits depicting Chinese people of the
1990s. In May 2008, one of them, Mask Series 1996 No. 6, was auctioned for $9.7 million, a record for contemporary Asian
art. By volume has become in 2011 the Chinese artist most desired by collectors.
His series of masks reaches nearly as high price of Zhang Xiaogang, followed by a
series of lines. The latter is their particular line using four brushes.
Zeng's Hospital Series is of his earliest work, and exemplifies his correlative
approach between painting and psychology. His A&E
waiting room is portrayed with overwhelming banality
and trauma: muted tones replicate the staleness of
public space, the milling crowds in the background
appear hazy and remote, while rusty washes pour
over the canvas replicating blood, sorrowful and repugnant. Sat centre stage are a distraught
patient and cavalier doctor, juxtaposed as human anguish and the white-coated horror of
bureaucracy. Their heads and hands are aggrandised to painful and clumsy scale in grotesque
parody of thought and action.
Zeng's magnificent landscapes express the vast conceptual gulf between individual cognition
and the actuality of environment. Painting with two brushes simultaneously, Zeng uses one to
describe his subject, while the other meanders the canvas, leaving traces of his subconscious
through processes. Through this combination of painterly realism and 'automatic' expression,
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Zeng's landscapes are transformed into near abstract fields; the
depicted people and places merging both memory and imagination.
In his well-known “Mask” series, Zeng’s figures wear a white mask;
they are mostly well-dressed urbanites, but they have large, strange
hands, weird expressions, blank stares or puzzling eyes. His works
often have sharp brush strokes, or even slashing strokes that reveal
tensions in what might be seen in a splintered universe.
An example of the simplification of the art that we have in The Sanya
Collection. These inks on paper work are a magnificent and rare
example of artist Zeng Fanzhi's iconic and immediately recognizable
expressionistic style. At times faint and wandering, at others aggressive and definite, the dynamic and complex bundle of
lines that slowly unravel across the page, are a testament to the artist's experiments with subconscious expression through
an 'automated' process. Evoking Zeng's landscape paintings, in which the artist
uses one hand to create his subject while simultaneously using his other hand in an
automatic fashion, this work conveys Zeng's
meditative and subconscious working method.
Ultimately, this drawing encapsulates the
psychological tension for which Zeng is famous, and is a rare and stunning testament to the
imagination and emotional range of the artist. "Watermelon" has strong symbolic implication.
The cut open red pulp associates with silent violence and protest, extending previous claiming
of topics like Peking Union Medical College Hospital, mask, etc. Image of watermelon has
once appeared in his early self-portrait or in the theme of Last Supper, symbolizing blood and
flesh. Here, the independently existing "Watermelon" presents the full visual sense
resembling silent monolog of the painter.
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ZHOU CHUNYA
The Trip to Sanya
Previously I have mysterious feelings towards the sea, and luxurious feeling towards sunshine. Both of them are so
attractive to people who live in cloudy inland areas. Even the air becomes precious as time goes by. A place with fresh air
also has people over 100 years old living there. Only one place has premium sunshine, air and sea, and it is Sanya. I
cannot forget my first trip to Sanya. Zhou Chunya.
Zhou Chunya (周春芽, born in 1955 in Chongqing) is best-known for his colorful “green dog” series of paintings, a dearly
loved German Shepherd. But he is also considered one of the country’s most talented
painters of nature and rural scenes. His works is almost expressionists, sometimes using
jagged brush strokes and other times creating colorful, blurred sweeping landscapes. His
canvases are often filled with figures left alone in the world or nature scenes devoid of
humans. In recent years, he has begun to paint a series of portraits filled with sexual
scenes in nature. Zhou usually does
this via his sensibility for color (which
always escapes being a language) and
through the very desire to activate the
iconographic tradition of Chinese
painting. The arena of neo-
expressionism is the politics of the
responsible Self, allied to the
exploration of a divided Self, and the
celebration of nature’s encompassing
energies. If the ‘Green Dog’ paintings
delve into Eros, the rock paintings have the undercurrent of the death
instinct, whilst the floral series hold out for survival, security and care.
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It wasn't just German Neo-Expressionism that inspired him, but his German Shepherd, Heigen. The dog became his chief
subject for more than ten years. Zhou describes the green dog as a sort of symbolic self-portrait. He interprets the
background as a field of uncertainty, loneliness, and distance between people, while the dogs express a wide variety of
emotions. “[The Green Dog’s] image and situation project my cultural characters and my
circumstance of reality in life.” Sadly, in 1999, died, possibly poisoned by a neighbor,
resulting in the artist's sorrowful refusal to paint for more than a year. Zhou did return
to his favorite subject and recently completed several sculptures of the dog with a shiny
coat of green industrial paint. Following the death of his dog, Zhou began to paint peach
blossoms in appreciation of the value and beauty of life. Watching the flowers blossom in
spring, he was deeply moved by their “flirtatious” energy and vigor. This led to a series
of peach blossom expressing the primitive desire of human beings and the theme of “sex
and emotion.” Bright red, sinuously shaped men embrace pink
women, whom Zhou heatedly describes: “In a fluid emotion and
mood of colors, flows indulgence of primitive and sincere imaginations. It is the total release of
human nature against a grand scene, an explosion of gentle violence!” In his fusion of delicate
flowers and unbridled human passion, Zhou couples traditionally modest Chinese subjects and
modern, more liberal attitudes to sexuality.
The brushwork for mountain rock is a very important category for Chinese traditional landscape
paintings. It has five approaches in respect to tick, crimple, rub, dye and dot. The form and the
structure of mountain rock decide the expression of the painting methods, and in turn, different
styles and genres are formed.
The work like in the "Peach Blossoms" series resonates with bright greens, pinks and reds, which are worked with free and
flowing brush strokes creating a vivid and enticing scene. Although reminiscent of traditional Chinese paintings the
energetic and vivid strokes set the works apart from the soft and elegant images traditionally rendered. Both the colors and
the compositions have a bold and unrestrained expression as if emotions have been set free. Zhou is considered the
greatest master in the use of colors in Chinese contemporary painting. In fact, he is the only one who has dared to so
many colors. But the latter, proof of its dominance is seen in the second work using only shades of gray to represent one of
the famous peach blossoms approaching a kind of abstraction work but showing a strong impressionism.
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WANG GUANGYI
We were together because of Lu Peng's 20th Century of Chinese Art. Thus, these wonderful texts and images were born.
Wang Guangyi
Wang Guangyi (王广义, born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in 1956 or 1957), is known for being the leader of the New
Art Movement circles that erupted out of China after 1989 and for his Great Criticism
series of paintings, using the images of propaganda from the Cultural Revolution
(1966–1976) and contemporary brand names from
western advertising. As an example, Artinfo notes
that one of Wang Guangyis’s Great Criticism
paintings “responds to the recent influx of advertising by juxtaposing the Coca-Cola logo with
an image of a Chinese soldier, appropriating the visual iconography of both the Chinese Cultural
Revolution and American pop art.”
Through his critique, Guangyi’s paintings weave intricate narratives, implicating the role of
the artist as an active participant (both as subjugator and subservient) in economic and
social policy. Guangyi treads a very delicate line between moral dictum and capitalist
endorsement; the interpretation of his paintings alternates with the subjectivity of
context. Amalgamating, confusing, and blurring opposing ideological beliefs, Guangyi’s
billboard sized canvases readily sell out national valor, while simultaneously devaluing status symbol luxury for the
proletariat cause.
Coma back to origins, “The ‘Frozen Northern Wasteland’ series (85’s) is not just a painting effort, it is a laudatory
declaration of our ideological and cultural condition. When humans have suffered the philosophical paradoxes of life, they
are left with the residual hopes of rebuilding an existential harmony.” In stark contrast to the Revolutionary Realist “red,
bright and shining” workers, farmers and soldiers that he painted as a young Red Guard, by 1985 Wang had distilled
Nietzsche’s Übermensch, or “Superman,” into icy, abstract, alien beings.
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For Mao Zedong AO (1988), Wang applied his rational grid onto a triple portrait of the Chairman, displaying an affinity with
Pop appropriation and repetition. As Dürer had done, buffering himself from the nude, with the
grid Wang tried to distance himself, and the viewer, from Mao as a seductive figure of
adoration. Yet Wang admits he did not totally succeed in removing emotion, as he did in his
“Post-Classical” and “Red and Black Rationality” series. His painting actually seems to add a
deeper, awe-inspiring aura to Mao’s image, perhaps because
he employed the standard portrait’s style of realism, or due to
its sheer size—an imposing 3.5 meters in width.
Wang is now using rich strokes that drip into abstract patterns
reminiscent of traditional Chinese ink-and-wash landscapes.
His 16-meter-long The Last Supper (2012), a version of the Da
Vinci masterpiece, contains such hidden vistas, in a new
synthesis of Eastern and Western classical traditions. What
happened to the grid? “When I was younger… I was really into this rational theory,” Wang
says. “Growing older, I started to realize that you cannot be rational about everything; there may be some mysterious
things that you cannot grasp rationally but can still appreciate. Now I’m interested in mysterious subjects. And Mao still
represents this mystery.”
The works from The Sanya collection probably go a step forward in his criticism, reflecting all his thoughts. From
hyperrealism to the abstract. How many works of nudes or regarding sex or
photography has been shown in China right now? Just a few, maybe for that the
importance of the word SEX in this works, and the link with ART? Perhaps beyond
what the words mean, of the interrelationships and consequences. In any case Wang
Guangyi remains the leader of the Chinese Contemporary painters and one who
always looks for new forms of expression within the art world, caring little market
value.
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85x70cm
MAO XUHUI
Lu Peng, Greetings! Your letter and words brought me back to beautiful Sanya. As you mentioned, our gathering was
most restful. I live in plateau area without a glimpse of sea, so the trip to Sanya left me deep and wonderful
memories: the moist air, the soft sunshine, the transparent greenish-blue sea and the beach with our footprints ... Of
course we also had academic activities. With the publishing of the first book in 20th century Chinese art history, a
group of artists who have contributed positively to Chinese contemporary art had the chance to get together. We
reviewed history, looked forward to the future, and painted free and relaxed with brushes under a harmonious and
pleasant atmosphere. Having heard that these spontaneous works will be consigned to a renowned auction house in
Asia, with the income being used to support AAA and your own teaching, I am indeed very happy! I think this is most
meaningful and I am honored that my work can contribute to your cause! Meanwhile, say Hello to Sanya! Have a nice
summer, Da Mao (Mao Xuhui)
Mao Xuhui (毛旭辉, was born in Chongqing, Sichuan in 1956), the idealistic leader of the mid-1980s Southwest Art
Group, which included Zhang Xiaogang and Pan Dehai, has never strayed far from Kunming and Gui Mountain in
Yunnan province, the wellspring of his creativity. Mao Xuhui began to take "power" as a theme in 1989 with the
Parents series of paintings.
The centrepiece of ‘92 Paternalism is an ordinary chair，
with a key and a door on the sides. They are all symbols of
quotidian objects， common in appearance and yet
profoundly lodged with Confucian orthodoxy and the
patriarch philosophy of the Chinese feudal society. While the
colour black and the style of the chair effect a solemn，
intricate impression， its upright arm and back lift straight
up whoever sits on the chair. With such positional altitude，
the chair engenders a sense of distance to the audience as
compared to those postures of standing and sitting on
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ground. This type of chair， by tradition， is in the best way symbolic of the power and prestige of the nobility and
bureaucrat； conventionally stalled in the hall； it signifies the status of the host in formal occasions or ceremonies.
The inspiration of Mao， in his appropriation of the symbol of authority and power， originates from his thorough
understanding of the traditional Chinese patriarchy and ethical philosophy - that there is a proper order between old
and young， rich and poor. Just as the father exercises absolute sovereignty in a family， the emperor demands
unquestioning obedience from his citizens. This is how the chair becomes the symbol of a fundamental concept
respecting the relationship between altitude， sitting posture and social class.
In 1992 he completed the Vocabulary of Power series. It was from the image of the
"parent" that the "scissors" was developed. The "parent" is
an iconic yet shapeless shadow seated on an overwhelming
altar-like throne. It is aloof and awe-inspiring, like a religious
icon. The stylized shape of the "parent" resembles a pair of
scissors, and it gradually becomes one which, in the Scissors
series, presides over domestic settings as the "parent" would
sit upon the altar. The menacing presence of the scissors is
compounded as an instrument of the everyday; as such it is a domestic as well as
"democratic" symbol, carrying associated powers by being visually suggestive of the
anthropomorphic god-like "parent" icon.
It was not until 2011 that the auction of his early works its price rose sharply, placing it in
the position he deserved in Chinese contemporary art.
The works in the Sanya collection keep the issues of Mao Xuhui represented in the series of Paternalism, the chair with
the icons. In this works he is much more intensive because the chair remains alone, isolated in an island and at the
meantime the chair dominates the island and the whole picture. In the Sanya collection, two years later the sunshine
overwrites the clouds. Therefore, the works in Sanya are so important, they are the translation of the issues of Mao
Xuhui (scissors and paternalism series) with classical tools, bringing simplicity to them against the more complex oil
on canvas.
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YE YONGQING
At the beginning of this year, Beijing was still cold. Remnant snow was everywhere, and the city was in a depression. I
got a text message from Lu Peng, in which he used the words, blue sky, white cloud, beach, palm trees, sunshine and
short sleeve T-shirt, to describe our upcoming gathering in Sanya. Names on the invitation were old friends that I
have known for decades. For many years, gatherings had happened occasionally in different places around the world,
but these people are always the focus of discussion. Lu's new art history of 100 years brings us not only memory, but
also numerous questions. The three days in Sanya passed by quickly, but fortunately the past, the current and the
future life of Lu Peng's art history remains. If these spontaneous ink play and graffiti works can do something for the
past, the current and the future life of our art history, I am more than happy to see the results. -Ye Shuai (Ye
Yongqing) June 17th, 2007 Beijing.
Ye Yongqing (叶永青 was born in 1958 in Kunming, Yunnan Province) is a pioneering artist who was part of the
Sichuan School of artists. He has spent much of his career painting portraits of birds,
one with jagged, clever lines. He also has
focused in recent years on creating colorful
collages. Currently the 1st president and
artistic director of China Contemporary Art
Institute of China Academy of Art founded
in 2010.
I admit, I do not know before, his work on
the Gathering are the most traditional, and
I change now when I see them closely, I
must say that the cranes are incredible, the
set of strokes and drops of varying intensity are marvelous and ink red and
green gives an incredible force. They appreciated the difficulty of working
with ink. I confess that it is the one that most attracts me to see their current work completely away from
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traditionalism and closer to Basquiat trying to explain a lot of things in a piece of paper or canvas. Trying to motivate
the viewer to think about. In addition to reading an article by Lü Peng, he is the one who has made a very strong
intellectual activity and certainly the most unfortunate with the success. Surely
he has more technical skills in the use of ink among the other artists; his other
works are also exceptional.
Ye Yongqing’s “birds” have had a long history, going through its own spiritual
development. They were conceived during China’s “Ideological Emancipation
Movement”, which endowed them with romance and sentiment in preparation for
their spiritual development. The birds were born in an age of social unrest and
confusion, when it was showered with an evolutionary storm of ideology and
perception, which also made it timeless and adaptive to any environment. Later,
the birds matured in the process of globalization, making them aware of the
distracting thoughts and the dust of
individualism at its heart. At the end, the birds
finally realized that they were nothing - just a
snapshot of the artist’s mentality at a certain, specific time. Like Marcel Duchamp’s
urinal, they represent the transition of conception. Therefore, we don’t have to
bear too much aesthetical burden in reading the “birds” which is compatible with
any space, and any interpretation from the audience could be plausible. However, I
have to remind you that it’s still necessary to know the growing history of the
“birds”, otherwise how could we possibly understand the “birds” as a symbol the
artist uses to connect his past, present and future?
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WU SHANZHUAN
Chóng fù jiū shì lì liàng yī jiǔ bā wǔ nián, wán quán wù lǐ èr líng líng líng nián! (Repetition is power 1985! Completed
physics 2000!) Repeat these words five times and you will get a total of 100 Chinese characters. Plus" Sān Yà Yǎ Jí"
(Sanya Elegant Gathering) has four characters. Multiplied by this by two equals 108* characters! - Wu Shanzhuan
*Note from the translator: Mr. Wu here is making an allusion to 108 heroic outlaws in the famous Chinese epic
Outlaws of the Marsh, to symbolize the Chinese contemporary and avant-garde artists' rebellious hearts.
Wu Shanzhuan (吴 专 was born in 1960 in Zhoushan) is one of the most influential artists in the avant-garde
movement. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as a long-haired conceptual artist known for his experimental works
with language and the use of big character posters, a kind of precursor to the better known works of Gu Wenda and
Xu Bing, which also toyed with language and meaning. Wu was part of the red humor group, engaged in performance
art, created installations, appeared at the famed no u turn
exhibition in 1989, he created a “Big Business” performance that
involved selling shrimp; and later left for Europe, where he spent
more than a decade in Germany and Iceland before returning to
China in 2005. His works are filled with satire, language tricks,
symbols and radical games. He often posed nude in his art works,
for a while with his former wife, Inga Thorsdottir. His work is filled
with absurd imagery and fantastical language.
As one of the leaders of the Chinese Conceptual Movement in
1980s, Wu Shanzhaun was the first artist in China to incorporate
textual pop references into his work. Wu’s pivotal 1986 installation,
Red Humour International, laid the foundation for his highly
idiosyncratic and sophisticated approach to painting, which forgoes image in favor of political jingoism, religious
scripture, and advertising slogans.
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Wu’s unique process of painting as writing is exemplified in his Today No
Water series. Conceived as a graphic novel, each canvas is a chapter of a
continuous stream of consciousness narrative. These works don’t tell a
story per se, but rather present a visual tension between fragmented
phrases and images, culminating in dizzying compositions that map out
free-style associations of ideas, references,
and symbols.
True to his art of storytelling. The art to
write and the billboard for the collection. I
like very much his last works, using strong
colorful images and words to reinforce the
message, his work on ink is really interesting. For the artist who use more words in his
works, the less.
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wán quán wù lǐ (completed physics)
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ZHANG PEILI
Zhang Peili (张培力 born in 1957 in Hangzhou). Zhang Peili earned his reputation as the father of video art in China
for his response to an invitation to create a new work for the historic Huangshan Conference on modern art in 1988.
He borrowed video equipment – which was, at the time, hard to come by – from friends at the customs bureau and
used it to film his latex-gloved hands breaking a mirror and then meticulously
gluing the shards back into place.
As a symbol, the glove is useful in understanding this: in the beginning of his
career, he obsessed over it, painting empty gloves dissected by numbered lines
again and again. To Zhang, the glove symbolizes institutional pressure, an
unnatural surgical barrier of control and containment. And at their best, his
works achieve the exact opposite effect, widening narrow discourses, as in his
groundbreaking first explorations in video, and works
He is beginning with the cool and
contained painting of the mid-1990s
and then moving into the aesthetics
of boredom and control in his first
video projects.
Zhang Peili is an enigmatic figure: while he is widely respected in China
as a pioneering video artist and a progenitor of the use of electronic
media in the wake of the 85 New Wave movement of the mid-1980s, his
international reputation relies primarily on a small number of survey
exhibitions. In 2011 one of his early paintings was auctioned for a
shocking HK$23 million during the controversial Sotheby’s sale of a
portion of the Ullens Collection in Hong Kong.
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Typically adopting a minimal or reductive position that constructs an essential
relationship between the aesthetics of video playback technology and the
moving image itself, his video installation focuses on questions of perceived
reality, media convention, individual agency, and spatial structure. In the years
between 1988 and 2011 his video practice has undergone a number of
significant shifts, beginning with the cool and contained painting of the mid-
1980s and then moving into the aesthetics of boredom and control in his first
video projects, including Document on Hygiene No. 3 (1991), in which the
artist subdues and washes a chicken at the center of the frame. The mid-1990s
saw classical reworking of the relationship between content and spatial form, as with Uncertain Pleasure II (1996), in
which a hand scratches every corner of a naked body depicted only in fragmentary close-up shots across 10 channels,
or Water: Standard Edition of Cihai (1991), for which a television announcer reads a dictionary entry as if it were the
evening news. And then there are the appropriation and remix works, including not only Last Words but also Actors’
Lines, in which the gestures of revolutionary fervor depicted in a militaristic propaganda film are reframed to read
almost romantically. Finally, more recent works involve interactive closed-loop systems like Hard Evidence No. 1
(2009) and theatrical scenes like A Gust of Wind (2008 and 2012).
The recognition of Zhang Peili is less than their counterparts likely due to use of video and installations in their work.
Probably that’s why their work is one of the most abstract of all the collection and maybe the answer is in his own
words by an interview: “What I felt during the early stages of my development as
an artist was that there is a kind of underlying force or power. Sudden changes or
disasters, which have been caused either by nature or human beings, made me
realize that people live in an illusion, and this feeling has become stronger as my
career as an artist has developed. All these beautiful and supposedly stable states
are so fragile. They are just illusions. Changeable and destructive states are
inevitable. THEY are the realities”.
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WANG GUANGYI and ZHANG PEILI
What can we expect from two artists like them? Introduce the use of hands. Not ask to me, ask them!!!
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ZHANG XIAOGANG and WU SHANZHUAN
A tribute to Qi Baishi.
Qi Baishi (齐白石; was born in January 1, 1864 in Xiangtang, Hunan – Beijing, September 16,
1957). He is perhaps the most noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his watercolor
works.
The subjects of his paintings include almost everything, commonly animals, scenery, figures,
toys, vegetables, and so on. He theorized that "paintings must be something between likeness
and unlikeness, much like today's vulgarians, but not like to cheat popular people". In his later
years, many of his works depict mice, shrimp, or birds.
He was also good at seal carving and called himself "the
fortune of three hundred stone seals".
In 1953 he was elected to the president of the
Association of Chinese Artists. One of his paintings,
Eagle Standing on Pine Tree was sold for 425.5
million yuan ($65.5 million) in 2011, becoming one
of the most expensive paintings ever sold at
auction.
According to Artprice index the firsts four artists by
amount in auctions 2011 are: Zhang Daqian, Qi
Baishi, Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso.
I’m unable to close this collection for better.
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Friendship’s Photobook
Amsterdam 2008 Venice 2009 Venice 2009
Venice 2009 Chengdu 2011 Barcelona 2012
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Edition finished on August 2012.
