Idol series, 1996
Oil on canvas, signed and dated on reverse
30 x 25 cm 11 3/4 x 9 7/8 in.
Yue Minjun was born in 1962 in Daqing, China, and lives and works in Beijing. An icon of Chinese contemporary art and enjoying international recognition, he has been referred to as the leader of "cynical realism," a movement defined by contemporary art critic Li Xianting. In 2012, a solo exhibition at the Fondation Cartier fueled new discussions about the political and social situation in China since the 1990s.The central theme of his works is laughter, which he declines through a variation of self-portraits: pink faces with gaping mouths and strained laughter. This motif, which will be repeated ad infinitum, was developed by the artist in the 1990s in the context of the Beijing Spring of 1989, which led to a bloody crushing of the dissident population. The artist plays on repetition to point out the uniformity of contemporary China, which he caricatures. To a certain extent, he uses Mao's aesthetic (bold colors, simplified silhouettes) to divert the socialist realism and propaganda that saturated the world of images in which he grew up. Although the creation of this work is linked to the Chinese context, it holds a universal scope that is that of the absurdity of the world.
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