.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Pan Dehai is at the vanguard of Chinese modern art. Upon graduating from the Northeast Normal University in 1982, Pan was transferred to Kunming, where he first met his fellow artists Zhang Xiaogang, Mao Xuhui and Ye Yongqing. Despite their lack
of financial resources, together they organized the New Figurative Art Exhibition in 1985. Based on their credo of "representing mind, representing soul", their exhibitions featured artworks that was highly individual and expressive, poetic in spirit and in intent. Their somewhat coarse styles reflected in four exhibitions proved to be a great influence on other avant-garde artists, and they became one of the major pillars of the '85 New Wave Movement. The following year, Pan and his compatriots founded the "Southwestern Art Research Group", which coordinated with other regional artist organizations and groups, most notably the "Northern Art Group" and the "Xiamen Dada". In subsequent years Pan participated in many significant exhibitions like the "Chinese Modern Art Exhibition" in 1989, held in Beijing, and the "Post 1989: New Art in China" held first in Hong Kong and then in various locations in Australia and North America in 1993, bearing witness to the glimmer of a golden era.
Having worked on a variety of motifs, Pan has explored a series of highly distinctive personal symbols and motifs, as with those found, for example, in the Corn series and the Fat Man series. "As for my painting, I am no longer inside the vogue after the '85 New Wave. But still I consider my art good art. There is nothing wrong with them, and I am no less passionate. That's why I persist," said the artist. In the early 1990s, Pan left the Southwest for Beijing and lived for some eight or nine years in this largely unfamiliar capital city. The metropolitan environment and living style, disparate from that in Yunan, had exerted pressure and influence, on the artist.Untitled (Lot 2355) is therefore stylistically different from the earlier expressionist works of Pan, who now turns to the accentuation of flatness in his composition and expressive colors, parting with his earlier focus on brushwork, layering and mystic ambience. "Humorous things always mesmerise me. They are funny, and they tickle laughter that means a lot. I am very fond of folk stuffs - simple, lovely, revealing." His works clearly follow his stated goals: portraits are depicted in chunky, colored lines, and black fonts resemble that of newspaper. The subjects are merged into one composite, but each bearing its own distinct colors. They wear, moreover, different facial expressions, which hint at the discrete plans they have for their own cause. All these reflect the exciting, albeit complicated, relationship between men in a metropolis. That said, not a single character in the work is given special attention; the composition is abstract, constructed by shades and lines in dissimilar colors. It is the condensation of individual characters that shapes the existence of a whole, representing the personal experience the artist as he goes through life in a changing society.
of financial resources, together they organized the New Figurative Art Exhibition in 1985. Based on their credo of "representing mind, representing soul", their exhibitions featured artworks that was highly individual and expressive, poetic in spirit and in intent. Their somewhat coarse styles reflected in four exhibitions proved to be a great influence on other avant-garde artists, and they became one of the major pillars of the '85 New Wave Movement. The following year, Pan and his compatriots founded the "Southwestern Art Research Group", which coordinated with other regional artist organizations and groups, most notably the "Northern Art Group" and the "Xiamen Dada". In subsequent years Pan participated in many significant exhibitions like the "Chinese Modern Art Exhibition" in 1989, held in Beijing, and the "Post 1989: New Art in China" held first in Hong Kong and then in various locations in Australia and North America in 1993, bearing witness to the glimmer of a golden era.
Having worked on a variety of motifs, Pan has explored a series of highly distinctive personal symbols and motifs, as with those found, for example, in the Corn series and the Fat Man series. "As for my painting, I am no longer inside the vogue after the '85 New Wave. But still I consider my art good art. There is nothing wrong with them, and I am no less passionate. That's why I persist," said the artist. In the early 1990s, Pan left the Southwest for Beijing and lived for some eight or nine years in this largely unfamiliar capital city. The metropolitan environment and living style, disparate from that in Yunan, had exerted pressure and influence, on the artist.Untitled (Lot 2355) is therefore stylistically different from the earlier expressionist works of Pan, who now turns to the accentuation of flatness in his composition and expressive colors, parting with his earlier focus on brushwork, layering and mystic ambience. "Humorous things always mesmerise me. They are funny, and they tickle laughter that means a lot. I am very fond of folk stuffs - simple, lovely, revealing." His works clearly follow his stated goals: portraits are depicted in chunky, colored lines, and black fonts resemble that of newspaper. The subjects are merged into one composite, but each bearing its own distinct colors. They wear, moreover, different facial expressions, which hint at the discrete plans they have for their own cause. All these reflect the exciting, albeit complicated, relationship between men in a metropolis. That said, not a single character in the work is given special attention; the composition is abstract, constructed by shades and lines in dissimilar colors. It is the condensation of individual characters that shapes the existence of a whole, representing the personal experience the artist as he goes through life in a changing society.