IN BETWEEN TWO WORLDS - Chapter 2
Working backwards as I am and that’s exactly what the exhibition of Zeng Fanzhi did too. A reverse order presentation of some 40 paintings and a couple of sculptures spanning the period from 2013 back to 1990.Not too many have titles.
You may remember that when I was in China, one of the centres told me that a Chinese artist had to be known overseas before he was recognized in China. This apparently was not the case with Fanzhi. He was born in Wuhan (1964) which is in China’s Hubei province. In art school he was influenced by both Western and Chinese contemporary art although I am not sure how he could have access to Western art in the early 90’s. After all, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, were student-led popular demonstrations in Beijing which took place in the spring and received broad support from city residents, exposing deep splits within China's political leadership. The protests were forcibly suppressed by hardline leaders who ordered the military to enforce martial law in the country's capital. As Zeng left to live in Bejing in 1993, I am not too sure just how liberated art could have been. When I was there it didn’t feel that way.
The exhibition was set up in close collaboration with Zeng Fanzhi and is in itself quite surprising. Once again you see different facets of his work although the break away in these last years with his landscapes are a far cry from the masks or the individuals and the masses.
His landscapes are the most recent and are very large indeed. What I found strange is that there seems to be two registers. One which is very free and covers the whole surface while the background is spacious but lacking in any human figure.
I don’t call the animals human….The Hare is not out of « Alice in Wonderland » - I don’t know where he comes from.
Another era which he calls « The Form is of No Importance » is, in my book political. Mao, Tian’An Men (2004). It may be blurred but when I put it up on my computer screen at home, it was frighteningly realistic.
Even his Self Portrait in 2009, he looks more like a monk than himself. Yet all the faces seem somehow to be self portraits. Of course this is where I am sure the influence comes from Yue Minjun.
The masks have come from somewhere. No-one can live without a mask in a city which has over 10 million people and where everyone must seem to be alike. Youth, communism, tears, laughter, everything is there. Even « The Last Supper » is somehow rather worrying.
We work back, but the paintings of hospitals I wiped when I go home. Some of the frozen meat too. After that period he started on water melon.
As you can see these paintings do not seem to be very positive in their approach and yet, the early ones caught the eyes of the critics. My question is, why did death and illness bring him into the limelight in China rather than something a little more cheerful? His work makes you think and me even more so since it’s only a few weeks ago that I was in Beijing.
You may remember that when I was in China, one of the centres told me that a Chinese artist had to be known overseas before he was recognized in China. This apparently was not the case with Fanzhi. He was born in Wuhan (1964) which is in China’s Hubei province. In art school he was influenced by both Western and Chinese contemporary art although I am not sure how he could have access to Western art in the early 90’s. After all, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, were student-led popular demonstrations in Beijing which took place in the spring and received broad support from city residents, exposing deep splits within China's political leadership. The protests were forcibly suppressed by hardline leaders who ordered the military to enforce martial law in the country's capital. As Zeng left to live in Bejing in 1993, I am not too sure just how liberated art could have been. When I was there it didn’t feel that way.
The exhibition was set up in close collaboration with Zeng Fanzhi and is in itself quite surprising. Once again you see different facets of his work although the break away in these last years with his landscapes are a far cry from the masks or the individuals and the masses.
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| Entrance to the exhibition |
His landscapes are the most recent and are very large indeed. What I found strange is that there seems to be two registers. One which is very free and covers the whole surface while the background is spacious but lacking in any human figure.
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| Untitled 2008 |
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| Untitles 2012 |
I don’t call the animals human….The Hare is not out of « Alice in Wonderland » - I don’t know where he comes from.
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| HARE 2012 |
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| TAI PING YOU XIANG 2007 |
Another era which he calls « The Form is of No Importance » is, in my book political. Mao, Tian’An Men (2004). It may be blurred but when I put it up on my computer screen at home, it was frighteningly realistic.
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| TIAN'AN MEN 2004 |
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| MAO 2004 |
Even his Self Portrait in 2009, he looks more like a monk than himself. Yet all the faces seem somehow to be self portraits. Of course this is where I am sure the influence comes from Yue Minjun.
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| IDEALISM 2004 |
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| SELF PORTRAIT 2009 |
The masks have come from somewhere. No-one can live without a mask in a city which has over 10 million people and where everyone must seem to be alike. Youth, communism, tears, laughter, everything is there. Even « The Last Supper » is somehow rather worrying.
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| Yue Minjun. |
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| MASK SERIES 5 1998 |
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| FLY 2000 |
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| MASK SERIES 3 - 1996 |
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| MASK SERIES 8 - 1997 |
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| MASK SERIES 13 - 1994 |
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| THE LAST SUPPER 2001 |
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| MASK SERIES 7 - 1995 |
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| MASK SERIES 11 - 1996 |
We work back, but the paintings of hospitals I wiped when I go home. Some of the frozen meat too. After that period he started on water melon.
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| UNTITLED 1980? |
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| A MAN IN MELANCHOLY 1995? |
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| MAN AND MEAT 19 ?? |
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| water melon replaces meat |
As you can see these paintings do not seem to be very positive in their approach and yet, the early ones caught the eyes of the critics. My question is, why did death and illness bring him into the limelight in China rather than something a little more cheerful? His work makes you think and me even more so since it’s only a few weeks ago that I was in Beijing.
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