Taffy, 1968 by Gene Davis

Taffy, 1968; Acrylic on canvas; Titled, signed, and dated "Title Taffy Gene Davis 1968" verso; Size - 89 x 8", Frame 89 1/2 x 8 1/2"; Framed with a wood and metal frame; Provenance and Price are Available On Request

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"My whole approach is intuitive. Sometimes I simply use the color I have the most of and worry about getting out of trouble later. Perhaps I'm like the jazz musician who can't read music but plays by ear. I paint by eye." - Gene Davis

Gene Davis (1920-1985) was an American Color Field painter known for his paintings of vertical strips of color. His first exhibition of drawings and first exhibition of paintings occurred in 1952 and 53 respectively. However, it was not until a decade later than he participated in the "Washington Color Painters" exhibit at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art in Washington DC that launched the recognition of the Washington Color School as a regional art movement. Davis was a central figure of that movement and was most known for his acrylic paintings of colored vertical stripes, which he began to paint in 1958.

 

In 1972, Davis created "Franklin's Footpath," which was at the time the world's largest artwork. It was accomplished by painting colored vertical stripes on the street in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He also painted "Niagara" in 1979, the world's largest painting (43,680 square feet) in a parking lot in Lewiston, NY. Davis also painted (at the other extreme) his "micro-paintings," that were as small as 3/8 on an inch wide.

In 1966, Gene Davis began teaching at the Corcoran School of Art, becoming a permanent member of the faculty. His works are included in many public and private collections as well as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum; just to name a few.

Close up of the title, Gene Davis signature, and date verso.

Close up of the J L Hudson Gallery label verso.

 

 Close up detail of "Taffy," 1968 by Gene Davis

 

Original receipt from Sotheby's Parke-Bernet for "Taffy," 1968 by Gene Davis

 

Davis's paintings tend to repeat particular colors in order to create a sense of rhythm and repetition with variations. Davis has said, "I never plan my color more than five stripes ahead and often change my mind before I reach the third stripe." The titles of his paintings were inspired by the whimsy of Paul Klee and were determined after the paintings were complete; and some of Davis's more famous paintings titles are derived from sweet treats such as "Licorice Stick," "Lemon Ice," "Popsicle," "Raspberry Icicle," and "Apricot Ripple." "Taffy," 1968 is a wonderful example of Davis at the height of his skill and the work is composed of 64 colored strips. Colors of varying light values are repeated across the canvas forcing the eye to dance about looking for ebbs and flows of interactions. Often the stripes are arranged as pairs or discreet groupings of alternating colors to keep the eye moving. Adjacent colors push and pull lines of color both away and towards the viewer in a seemingly ever ending orchestration. The viewer's eyes are being expertly manipulated by Davis in a figure to ground interaction, ever seeking a way to resolve the composition. An absolutely fantastic painting that is perfect for any modern art collection!

 

Provenance: 

Fishback Gallery, New York 

J. L. Hudson Gallery Detroit

Sotheby's Parke-Bernet, Los Angeles, Contemporary Paintings, 22 January 1973, Lot 13

Private Collection

LA Modern, 20th Century Art, 20 June 2024, Lot 122

Untitled Art Gallery, Durham, NC

  #GeneDavis #colorfield #art #artwork #artist #untitledartgallery #OpArt #WashingtonColorSchool #Taffy

Etude de fruits et de feuilles de néflier (Study of medlar fruits and leaves), 1944 by Henri Matisse

Etude de fruits et de feuilles de néflier (Study of medlar fruits and leaves), 1944; Black Conté crayon on paper; Signed and dated 'H Matisse 44' lower right; With original Certificate of Authenticity from Archives Matisse; Size - 16 1/2 x 12 1/2", Frame 28 x 23 1/2"; Framed with a black wood frame, floated and matted with acid free white mats, black wood fillet, and UV conservation clear glass; Provenance, Exhibition History, and Price are Available On Request!

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.” – Henri Matisse

Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse (1869 – 1954) was a French artist who was known for both his use of colour and his original draughtsmanship. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso, as one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists who redefined the visual arts of painting and sculpture. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly being hailed as a leader in the classical tradition of French painting. His artistic creation spanned over a half-century, and he is now considered a leading figure in the modern art movement.

 

Matisse often drew variations of leaves that were growing in his own garden as well as his publisher friend, Teriade. The choice of medium was pencil, Conté crayon, or pen and ink on paper and the drawings were executed with a minimum of line in order to capture the essential character of the subject. Matisse recognized that the drawing of a line expressed his emotions, which could then be translated and integrated into his composition. The size and proportions of the support medium was adapted to realize a design of absolute elegance and clarity. The white space of the field against the lined botanical drawings reinforced the view that Matisse saw these works of art as "generators of light."

 

Close up of the H Matisse signature and 44 date.

Framed image of  "Etude de fruits et de feuilles de néflier (Study of medlar fruits and leaves)," 1944 by Henri Matisse. 

 

 Certificate of Authenticity from Archives Matisse Front

 

 Certificate of Authenticity from Archives Matisse Back

"Etude de fruits et de feuilles de néflier (Study of medlar fruits and leaves)," 1944 is a wonderful original drawing of medlar fruits and leaves. Mespilus germanica known as medlar, is a fruiting tree that has been cultivated since Roman times. The medlar fruit is usually harvested in the winter and the fruit is sweetest after ripening and further undergoing a softening referred to as bletting. The flesh taste is similar to an apple puree with hints of citrus, date, and apricot. This drawing is instantly recognized as being from the hand of Matisse, as it is executed in his classic loose drawing style. One only need to look at the leaves and fruit to see Matisse's great economy of lines, that form a wonderfully balanced composition. The use of contour and the ease of the movement are used in order to convey both a sense of softness and depth. The resulting composition is relaxed and calm, and the viewers eyes slowly drift across the sheet, finding refugee in the use of negative space. "Etude de fruits et de feuilles de néflier" is a spectacular, large, rare, and beautiful drawing by Henri Matisse and would be a great addition to any art collection!

 

Exhibited:

 

Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Musée Matisse, Matisse et l’arbre, October
2003-January 2004, p. 131 (illustrated)
Pontoise, Musée Tavet-Delacour, Henri Matisse, fleurs, feuillages et
fruits, May-June 2005, p. 39, no. 28 (illustrated)
Nice, Musée Matisse, Cinématisse, 2019

Georges Matisse has confirmed the authenticity of this work.

#Matisse #HenriMatisse #UntitledArtGallery #drawing #art #artist #artwork #leaves #signedMatisse #modernart #stilllife #medlarfruitsandleaves #Fauvism #originaldrawing #medlar

Circle II (III-5), from Handmade Paper Project, 1978 by Kenneth Noland

Circle II (III-5), from Handmade Paper Project, 1978; Handmade paper composed of five layers of colored paper pulp with one monotype litho printing; Signed & dated Noland 78 in pencil bottom right; Annotated I-13 in pencil left verso; Published by Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Bedford, New York, with their blindstamp lower right; Size - Sheet 34 1/4 x 20 3/4", Frame 40 x 28 1/4"; Framed floated on a white mat, white shadowbox wood frame, and UV conservation clear glass.

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"I knew what a circle could do. Both eyes focus on it. It stamps itself out, like a dot. This, in turn, causes one's vision to spread, as in a mandala in Tantric art." - Kenneth Noland

In October of 1952 Helen Frankenthaler, after a trip to Nova Scotia, had a breakthrough with a painting entitled "Mountains and Sea." The painting was abstract and rather than painting the landscape that she saw on her trip, the work portrayed the experience itself. The abstract image was painted using a "soak stain" technique, whereby unprimed canvas duct is painted using oil paint that had been heavily thinned with turpentine. The effects of the technique reinforced the abstract nature of the landscape painting; and when the artists Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis saw it in her studio in New York, their own painting styles were forever changed.

On the train ride back to Washington DC, Noland and Louis realized that Frankenthaler's painting was their key to finding their own paths. Each made the decision to disregard all his own prior work and begin fresh. Noland stated, "We were interested in Pollock but could gain no lead from him. He was too personal. But Frankenthaler showed us a way - a way to think about and use color." Morris Louis found is structure for his color field paintings first with the unfurl series; and soon after Kenneth Noland found his, with the circle paintings. "I knew what a circle could do. Both eyes focus on it. It stamps itself out, like a dot. This, in turn, causes on's vision to spread, as in a mandala in Tantric art," Kenneth Noland.

Close up of the signature and date.

The circle paintings in the 1960's were Noland's first color format; but would be followed over the years by chevrons, strips, plaids, and irregular paintin series. Noland would return to these early formats in the 1990's using opaque and bold acrylics, however the soak stain technique from the 1960's are by far his greatest achievement.

From Judith Goldman "Kenneth Noland Handmade Papers," 1978:
"From April to August 1978, Kenneth Noland made images out of paper at Tyler Graphics in Bedford, New York. Working with oriental and western fibers and bits of colored paper, he produced oer 200 images. The results were staggering. At first glance, many images seem quite like each other. But no two are the same. Colors vary from filmy blues and bright yellows to soft purples and murky greys. Textures range from wafer-thin oriental surfaces, thick as encrusted cardboard. In some pieces image prevail; in some, structure does. Paper-making is never the point, for Noland, it is a way to explore color and create texture."

Close up of the KN initials and the Tyler Graphics blindstamp.

The handmade paper works of art completed at Tyler Graphics fall into four categories. The Circle I Series were composed of three layers of colored pulp with three monotype litho printings. The sheet size was 20 x 16" oriented either vertical or horizontal. The Horizontal Stripes Series I-IV were varied by both size and the number of layers of colored pulp. The Diagonal Stripes Series were composed of eight layers of colored pulp. However, the greatest works of art created within the entire handmade paper project were the Circle II Series of artworks. These pieces were his larges circles, and it this format of color field painting that Kenneth Noland is most recognized. The Circle II Series were composed of five layers of colored pulp with one monotype litho printing. The sheet size was 32 x 21" oriented either vertical or horizontal.

Framed Circle II (III-5), from Handmade Paper Project, 1978 by Kenneth Noland.

This is an absolutely amazing Handmade Paper Circle Painting by Kenneth Noland! The inner circle is a soft light blue with outward circles of green, yellow, white, and pink. The ground is a rich pale yellow; that further enhances the interactions of the color fields, overall composition, and balance. To further activate the surface, there are colored fibers and bits multicolored paper scattered throughout the work. A beautiful addition to any art collection!

#noland #circlepainting #frankenthaler #helenfrankenthaler #untitledartgallery #kennethnoland  #colorfield #abstractart #abstactexpressionism #art #handmadepaper #greenberg #clementgreenberg #artist #artwork #morrislouis #julesolitski #paperpulp #kentyler #tylergraphic #kennethtyler

Daydreams Blossom, 2021 by Damien Hirst

Daydreams Blossom; Oil on card, mounted on birch ply frames, with canvas webbing around the edges; Titled Daydreams Blossom, signed Damien Hirst, and dated 2021 in oil paint by the artist verso; Allocated by HENI Primary, London UK (PB462, 2021); Size - 24 1/2 x 16 1/2", Frame 24 1/4 x 17 1/2"; Framed in an acrylic box.

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"I want them to make you feel good, feel happy, I want you to get lost in them. And I want them to feel like summer, I want you to forget your troubles if you have any, for a moment and enjoy the idea of flowers, of sunlight and of cherry blossoms and I want you to love the chaos and celebration of the splattered paint. Is that wrong for me to want that? Does that make me a hippy?" - Damien Hirst

 

Damien Hirst (b. 1965) is an English artist and art collector that was part of the YBAs (Young British Artists) that dominated the UK art scene of the 1990's. During this time he was linked to art collector Charles Saatchi, who acquired early works by Hirst and was an advocate of his work. Death is a central theme in Hirst's works with his most famous artistic series being dead animals (shark, sheep, cow, etc) sometimes dissected, and preserved in glass vitrines of formaldehyde. The most famous of the series is "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living," is a 14-foot tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde suspended in a clear glass display case. Hirst deals with the complex relationships between art, beauty, science, religion, life and death. He has also created "Spin Paintings" by adding paint onto a spinning circular surface, and "Spot Paintings" which are rows of random colored circles painted by assistants.

In September 2008, Damien Hirst was able to sell a complete show entitled "Beautiful Inside my Head Forever" at Sotheby's auction; thus making the unprecedented move of bypassing his long standing galleries. The auction netted $198 million, breaking the record for a single artist auction as well as breaking the auction record for Damien Hirst when "The Golden Calf," a calf with 18-carat gold horns and hooves preserved in formaldehyde, sold for $18.4 million. In 2020 Hirst is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest living artist with his wealth estimated at $384 million. 

 

In 2018 Damien Hirst created a series of large scale painting of "Cherry Blossoms," and in 2021 he opted for a more intimate scale for the "Paper Blossoms" series. With "Paper Blossoms" the cropping of the cherry blossoms picture became more focused, bringing the viewer to a more focused state of observation and exploration. The series is composed of 900 oil paintings on card of cherry blossoms, mounted on birch ply frames, with canvas webbing around the edges. Each is signed, dated, and titled by Hirst on the verso. The 900 paintings are composed of 300 large paintings measuring 84.2 x 59.6 cm and 600 paintings measuring 59.6 x 42.1 cm.

The next two paragraphs are from the HENI Primary website about the Damien Hirst Paper Blossoms: 

"Arranged side-by-side across long tables in his studio, Hirst worked on several Paper Blossoms at a time, moving up and down the tables as he built up layers of thick, tactile paint. This process recalls the creation of his monumental Cherry Blossoms paintings: "I was getting lost in painting and wanted viewers to get lost in my paintings," he stated.

What results from this energetic practice are glimpses of the cherry blossom trees, views of their sprawling branches and gravity-defying blossoms. This intentional and careful use of framing to create more intimate experiences for viewers has long been part of Hirst's practice, stretching back to his infamous formaldehyde sculptures. As the artist said, "I just wanted it to be in your face. I want you to feel like you're too close to it, you know. All the work I've made - you know, the sharks, everything, all that sort of stuff - I want it to be aggressive and in your face. I want you to have a physical reaction to it.""

 

Damien Hirst painting the "Paper Blossoms."

Damien Hirst painting the "Paper Blossoms."

"Paper Blossoms" on folding table work surfaces.

"Paper Blossoms" on folding table work surfaces.

Damien Hirst painting the "Paper Blossoms."

Verso of framed "Daydreams Blossom," 2021 by Damien Hirst

In order to paint the 'Paper Blossoms," Damien Hirst arranged long tables end to end, simultaneously worked on multiple pieces, and applied thick textured paint in layers in order to bring the pieces to life. "Daydreams Blossom" is an exceptional work and one of the best paintings from the series. The image is beautifully rendered in thick strokes, dots, and splashes of oil paint that creates a field of explosive color. The blossoms and leaves are dynamic and create a push pull effect against the blue sky and brown tree branches. This is an absolutely fantastic unique work by Damien Hirst and would be a standout of any art collection!

  #DamienHirst #Hirst #PaperBlossoms #Heni #UniqueDamienHirst #YBA #Cherryblossom #CherryBlossoms #HENIPrimary #OriginalPainting #untitledartgallery #SignedDamienHirst #HirstPainting #SignedHirst 

Paris Blue Basket Set, 2001 by Dale Chihuly

Paris Blue Basket Set, 2001; Hand-blown glass composed of seven elements; Incised signature and date to one element 'Chihuly 01'; Size: 12 x 13 1/4 x 12 1/2".

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"My work, to this day revolves around a simple set of circumstances: fire, molten glass, human breath, spontaneity, centrifugal force, gravity." - Dale Chihuly 

 

Dale Chihuly was born on September 20, 1941 and is an American glass sculptor. His works are considered to be exceptional in the field of blown glass; and he has adapted the technical difficulties of the medium to explore and implement installations, as well as environment specific artwork.

Chihuly first began experimenting with glass blowing in 1965 and began an extensive education centered around sculpture. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1968; and that same year was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant for his work in glass, as well as a Fulbright Fellowship. He traveled to Venice to work at the Venini factory on the island of Murano, where he first saw the team approach to glass blowing. In 1976, while in England, he was involved in a head-on-car crash which propelled him through the windshield. His face was severely cut by glass and he was permanently blinded in his left eye. After recovering, he continued to blow glass until he dislocated his right shoulder in 1979 while body surfing.

 

Paris Blue Basket Set, 2001 by Dale Chihuly

Close up of the Paris Blue Basket Set, 2001 by Dale Chihuly

No longer able to hold a glassblowing pipe, he was able to utilize the team approach to glass blowing he had seen in Murano, and hired other artists to do the physical work. Chihuly explained the change saying, "Once I stepped back, I liked the view." He felt liberated and more free to see the work from multiple perspectives, and the change enabled him to anticipate problems earlier and to react. His role in the studio changed from participate, to supervisor and problem solver. One of the most critically acclaimed series by Chihuly was the Macchia series. Macchia, which is Italian for spot, was begun in 1981 and continues today. 

"Baskets was the breakthrough series for me as an artist." - Dale Chihuly

In 1977, Chihuly found inspiration in the woven American Indian baskets of the Washington State Historical Society in Tocoma, Washington. Chihuly stated, "I saw some beautiful Northwest Coast Indian baskets at the Washington State Historical Society, and was struck by the grace of their slumped, sagging forms. I wanted to capture this grace in glass." Chihuly had been a student of weaving and he was interesting in translating the art form into glass. He began his glassblowing by exploring a more organic and less symmetrical approach and his Basket series has evolved to include small subdued sculptures to large dramatic pieces that deal with color and transparency in unique ways. Some of the Basket pieces would reach six feet in length and containing as many as 20 smaller elements, and he worked the glass to be very thin in certain areas to create as transparency allowing the viewer to see through the outer vessel and visually explore the interior that contains other organic glass forms. 

Close up of the incised signature and date.

Chihuly and his team of artists have been the subjects of several documentaries, extensive printed articles, monographs, and collections. For a complete list of Museum collections, please click on the link below:

Dale Chihuly Museum Collections

"Paris Blue Basket Set," 2001 by Dale Chihuly is an exceptional example of Dale Chihuly at his best. This large set is composed of seven brilliant blue pieces each with a black lip. The large basket starts as a dark blue color near the top and then quickly fades to a thiner transparent clear glass, to allow the viewer to see the other art objects inside the basket. An absolutely stunning, large, and complex piece of modern glass by the most important glass artist of his time, and a standout of any art collection!

#Chihuly #DaleChihuly #Artglass #Blownglass #Basket #glass #Art #artist #untitledartgallery #BasketSeries

Great Criticism - Coca Cola (Green), 2006 by Wang Guangyi

 

Great Criticism - Coca Cola (Green), 2006; Lithograph in colors on wove paper; Signed Wang Guangyi in Chinese in pencil lower right and numbered 144/199 in pencil lower left; Published by Idem, Paris; Size - Sheet 35 x 30"; Unframed.

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"... the formation of the Great Criticism series was somehow accidental as well. Despite the poor artistic qualities of propaganda images made by amateur painters during the cultural revolution, I used to find in them a unique kind of power which I wished to exploit in my works. I enlarged and copied one of those image of workers, peasants and soldiers onto a canvas, setting it in the corner, and had no idea how to deal with it. Several days later, I happened to have a chance to drink a can of Coke. This was in those days when lots of Western consumer products (such as Coca-Cola and Marlboro cigarettes) had just entered China, but Coke was still a "luxurious" drink. Incidentally, I set the Coke can on the ground, suddenly coming up with some interesting ideas." - Wang Guangyi

 

Wang Guangyi (b. 1957) is a Chinese artist recognized as a leader of the new art movement that started in China after 1989. Great Criticism is his most famous series of works that integrated propaganda images of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) with contemporary logos from Western advertisements. Guangyi began this series in 1990 and ended it in 2007 when he became convinced that its international success would affect the original meaning of the works, in particular that the political and commercial propaganda images are just different forms of brainwashing.

 

Close up of the Wang Guangyi in Chinese signature.

Close up of the edition number.

 

Great Criticism - Coca Cola (Green), 2006 is a great example of Wang Guangyi's Great Criticism series and features three 'heroes' of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in red and yellow. The center male farmer is clutching a hammer and sickle (emblems of the Chinese Communist Party which together symbolize the working tools of workers and farmers) in his right hand. The left female worker and the right military male figure are both holding "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung" commonly referred to as the "Little Red Book." At the top of the work is the western advertising logo of Coca-Cola and the figures and logo are set on a green background. The entire composition is stamped with two repeating, randomly placed numbers. During the Cultural Revolution, two license numbers were required for the production of any image for public consumption, one to produce the image and another to distribute it. The numbers reference the extreme restrictions on the creative process during Guangyi's early artistic career. The word NO with the universal recycling symbol is the artist's statement that both images are forms of propaganda that should not continue to be utilized and recycled indefinitely.

 

Close up of the publisher Idem Paris stamp.

The discussion of contemporary Chinese art must include Li Xianting, the most renowned art critic in China. Xianting graduated from the Chinese Painting Department, Central Academy of Fine Art in 1978 and became the editor of Meishu (Fine Art Magazine) until 1983 and from 1985-89 he was the editor of the China Fine Art Newspaper. He is currently based in Beijing and acts as an independent critic and curator. In the late seventies and eighties he was the major force in introducing and advocating the burgeoning avant-garde art in China that was starting to embark on economic reformation. Xianting coined the terms "Cynical Realism" and "Political Pop" which formed the dominate schools of the Chinese avant-garde. Many of the artists that he discovered and promoted have become leading figures and have garnished great international attention, such as Wang Guangyi and Yue Minjun. Li Xianting writing about the emergence of Political Pop and Cynical Realism stated:

 

"... both (movements were) interested in the dissolution of certain systems of meaning... (and) adopt a comical approach... With a revolutionary momentum resembling that of the '85 New Wave, these artists raised the flag of Western deconstruction and rallied under slogans such as 'purging humanist enthusiasm'... They stripped the lofty veil off the metaphysical '85 New Wave and attempted to give rise to a new movement through the 'materiality and immediacy' of Pop Art. -

("Political Pop and a Deconstructivist Attempt," 1992, Li Xianting, published in MoMA Primary Documents: Contemporary Chinese Art, Durham, NC, 2010, p. 178.)

The Political Pop art movement that emerged in China in the 1980s, combined western pop art with socialist realism in order to create art that questioned the political and social climate of a rapidly changing China. The movement also was a creative means by artists to come to terms with the Cultural Revolution. Great Criticism - Coca Cola (Green), 2006 is an excellent example of Wang Guangyi at his best and would be a wonderful addition to any modern art collection!

#WangGuangyi #Guangyi #PoliticalPop #PopArt #LiXianting #GreatCriticism #Cocacola #CynicalRealism #Chineseart #signedandnumbered #signed #artist #China #CulturalRevolution #artwork #untitledartgallery #art #artist #Chineseavantgarde #avantgarde

Untitled (Smile-ism No. 1), 2006 by Yue Minjun

 

Untitled (Smile-ism No. 1), 2006; Lithograph in colors on wove paper; Signed Yue Minjun in pencil lower right and numbered 22/45 in pencil lower left; Published by Art Issue Editions, New York; Size - Sheet 43 x 31 1/2"; Unframed.

To purchase this work or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

“A smile doesn’t necessarily mean happiness; it could be something else.” - Yue Minjun

 

Yue Minjun (b. 1962) is a Chinese artist based in Beijing China and is best known for his works that depict himself in various settings, eyes tightly shut, and frozen in smiling laughter. He has worked in a variety of media including oil painting, sculpture, watercolor, and prints. Minjun is often classified as part of the Chinese Cynical Realist art movement developed in 1989, although he rejects the label. “I’m actually trying to make sense of the world,” he said. “There’s nothing cynical or absurd in what I do.” He holds the record auction price for a contemporary Chinese painting at $5.9 million, when his painting “Execution” (1995) sold at Sotheby's London in 2007.

Yue Minjun studied oil painting at the Hebei Normal University and graduated in 1989. In June of that year China was rocked by student-led demonstrations and their suppression on Tiananmen Square. “My mood changed at that time,” he said. “I was very down. I realized the gap between reality and the ideal, and I wanted to create my own artistic definition, whereby there could be a meeting with social life and the social environment. The first step,” he added, “was to create a style to express my feelings accurately, starting with something that I knew really well —myself.” 

 Close up of the Yue Minjun pencil signature.

Minjun's now iconic laugh was inspired by a painting that he saw by another Chinese artist, Geng Jianyi, in which a smile is deformed to mean the opposite of what it normally means. “In China there’s a long history of the smile,” Mr. Yue said. “There is the Maitreya Buddha who can tell the future and whose facial expression is a laugh. Normally there’s an inscription saying that you should be optimistic and laugh in the face of reality." 

"So I developed this painting where you see someone laughing,” Yui said. “At first you think he’s happy, but when you look more carefully, there’s something else there. There were also paintings during the Cultural Revolution period, those Soviet-style posters showing happy people laughing,” he continued. “But what’s interesting is that normally what you see in those posters is the opposite of reality.” Yue made the decision to paint himself as the smiling figure giving him a greater margin for freedom of expression. “I’m not laughing at anybody else, because once you laugh at others, you’ll run into trouble, and can create obstacles,” he said. “This is the way to do it if you want to make a parody of the things that are behind the image,” he stated.

Close up of the edition number.

The discussion of contemporary Chinese art must include Li Xianting, the most renowned art critic in China. Xianting graduated from the Chinese Painting Department, Central Academy of Fine Art in 1978 and became the editor of Meishu (Fine Art Magazine) until 1983 and from 1985-89 he was the editor of the China Fine Art Newspaper. He is currently based in Beijing and acts as an independent critic and curator. In the late seventies and eighties he was the major force in introducing and advocating the burgeoning avant-garde art in China that was starting to embark on economic reformation. Xianting coined the terms "Cynical Realism" and "Political Pop" which formed the dominate schools of the Chinese avant-garde. Many of the artists that he discovered and promoted have become leading figures and have garnished great international attention, such as Wang Guangyi and Yue Minjun. Li Xianting writing about the emergence of Political Pop and Cynical Realism stated:

 

"... both (movements were) interested in the dissolution of certain systems of meaning... (and) adopt a comical approach... With a revolutionary momentum resembling that of the '85 New Wave, these artists raised the flag of Western deconstruction and rallied under slogans such as 'purging humanist enthusiasm'... They stripped the lofty veil off the metaphysical '85 New Wave and attempted to give rise to a new movement through the 'materiality and immediacy' of Pop Art. -

("Political Pop and a Deconstructivist Attempt," 1992, Li Xianting, published in MoMA Primary Documents: Contemporary Chinese Art, Durham, NC 2010, p. 178.)

The Cynical Realism art movement that emerged in China began in Beijing in the 1990s, and has become one of the most popular Chinese contemporary art movements in mainland China. The movement arose as Chinese artists broke away from the collective mindset of the Cultural Revolution in the pursuit of individual expression. The resulting works of art focus on social and political issues that are transformed using humor. There is also a post-ironic take on the transition that Chinese society has undergone from Communism through industrialization and modernity.

Untitled (Smile-ism No. 1), 2006 is an excellent example of Yue Minjun at his best. The Smile-sim series is a group of 28 large lithographs that feature single or multiple images of the eyes closed smiling Yue Minjun set in different poses and on different backgrounds. Untitled (Smile-ism No. 1) features the classic eyes closed mouth open smiling image of the artist's face over another image of him, but this time his own hands are covering his eyes. This contemporary Chinese work would be a wonderful addition to any modern art collection!

 

#YueMinjun #Minjun #CynicalRealism #Realism #LiXianting #Smile-ism #Smileism #PoliticalPop #Chineseart #signedandnumbered #signed #artist #China #CulturalRevolution #artwork #untitledartgallery #art #artist #Chineseavantgarde #avantgarde