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Lot Essay
Of the generation of painters to gain recognition in the 1990s?, ?Fang Lijun was among the first to see his work circulate outside? ?China and garner interest for the country's developing artistic underground?. ?His paintings of bald-headed men perfectly captured the nihilism felt by his generation?. ?After the Tiananmen Square tragedy in June 1989? ?and in the context of a rapidly expanding? ?consumerist society?. ?Fang deliberately played with ambiguity?; ?the shaved head?, ?with all its associations?, ?could equally reference monks?, ?prisoners?, ?or the military?. ?All are in social settings where individual identity is necessarily suppressed for the sake of spiritual refinement or to better serve the larger institution?. ?But Fang's adoption of the bald head without any affiliations marked his figures as hooligans?, ?social outcasts whose blas2008.3.30?, ?refines?, ?expands?, ?and deepens Fang's core inquiries into the relationship between the individual and society?, ?fate and destiny?, ?and the philosophical and emotional power behind deliberately choosing to live in a vague?, ?contradictory?, ?and ambiguous world?.?? ?An undulating steely blue background is punctuated by three tear-shaped forms full of Fang's child-like figures?. ?The forms resemble boats adrift at sea?, ?but the background is rendered with such ambiguity?, ?it is not clear if we are viewing a seascape or a? ?sky?. ?The viewer's perspective is radically skewed and disoriented?, ?and as a result these strange boat-like forms begin to feel more like a break in human dimensionality?, ?like tears across the heavens that have broken through from some other reality?. ?The child-like figures are luminous in their deep orange flesh-tones?, ?and swathes of yellow?, ?blue and green cloth can be glimpsed among them?. ?Each grouping is encircled by a vortex of black crows?, ?bats?, ?butterflies?, ?bees?, ?flies and other insects?, ?as well as the? ?occasional winged cherub?, ?and these are met with the figures?' ?awed expressions?. ?These endless contrasts?, ?between the beautific and a sense of foreboding?, ?moves the work away from Fang's typical utopian vision into something nearly apocalyptic?. ?The tone of? ?the work is reminiscent of the combination of ecstasy and resignation found in the cataclysmic poems of William Butler Yeats?: ?
? &?Heave no sigh?, ?let no tear drop?,?
A-greater?, ?more gracious time has gone?;?
For painted forms or boxes of make-up
In ancient tombs I sighed?, ?but not again?;?
What matter?? ?Out of cavern comes a voice?,?
And all it knows is that one word? '?Rejoice?!'?
excerpt from? ??!'?W?. ?B?. ?Yeats?, ?The Gyres?!(?? ?
Fang's exploration of utopian imagery is fundamentally an exploration of the unconscious and repressed historical memory?. ?As such?, ?the work doesn't display the hierarchical pantheon one might find in Michelangelo's view of the end of times? (?Fig?. ?2?). ?Instead?, ?his is an egalitarian vision?, ?rooted in the buoyant compositions and bold colours of popular communist propaganda? (?Fig?. ?3?), ?and elevated to the level of a darkly satirical metaphysics?. ?The work is full of contrasts and binaries?: ?the genderless children? ?caught between male and female?; ?their existence caught between becoming and annihilation?; ?their expressions hovering between delight and terror?; ?the ground itself veering ambiguously between earth and sky?. ?Peering out into the world around them?, ?they are? ?beset by creatures that might either beguile or harm them?. ?Says Fang?: "?Although the appearance of a single bald figure might be? ?striking?, ?when they appear as a collective group?, ?individuality will disappear?. ?This was a compelling reason for me to depict them in a group?. ?For people who have been brought up in our cultural background?, ?there is a strong feeling that one has been neglected as an individual in society?." ?
Fang presents a breathtaking vision caught in the state of either becoming or ending?, ?but despite its harrowing qualities?, ?it is? ?rooted in Fang's humanism and concern for the fate of the individual in a collective environment?. ?The Cynical Realist ethos was? ?never simply brutally fatalistic?, ?and Fang is no mere hopeless nihilist here?. ?Whether in the hands of Liu Wei or Yue Minjun?, ?Cynical Realist painters were grounded in subjective?, ?quotidian experience?, ?and it was their desire to reveal the? "?truth?" ?of a social reality they could not accept that drove their creations?, ?even as they approached them through irony?, ?satire?, ?and layered misdirection?. ?For Fang?, ?vagueness and ambiguity is the goal?. ?It is in that ambiguity that all binaries?, ?all politics?, ?struggles?, ?ideologies and malleable experiences that constitute life exist?. ?His then is an ironically utopian apocalypse?, ?or an apocalyptic? ?utopia?, ?one that mocks the imprimatur of ideology on lived experience?, ?suggesting the darker extremes that any utopian vision might lead to?. ?It is through these deliberately disorienting oppositions that we can see how Fang's vision allows for a supple and? ?poetic vision of the human condition?. ?
? &?Heave no sigh?, ?let no tear drop?,?
A-greater?, ?more gracious time has gone?;?
For painted forms or boxes of make-up
In ancient tombs I sighed?, ?but not again?;?
What matter?? ?Out of cavern comes a voice?,?
And all it knows is that one word? '?Rejoice?!'?
excerpt from? ??!'?W?. ?B?. ?Yeats?, ?The Gyres?!(?? ?
Fang's exploration of utopian imagery is fundamentally an exploration of the unconscious and repressed historical memory?. ?As such?, ?the work doesn't display the hierarchical pantheon one might find in Michelangelo's view of the end of times? (?Fig?. ?2?). ?Instead?, ?his is an egalitarian vision?, ?rooted in the buoyant compositions and bold colours of popular communist propaganda? (?Fig?. ?3?), ?and elevated to the level of a darkly satirical metaphysics?. ?The work is full of contrasts and binaries?: ?the genderless children? ?caught between male and female?; ?their existence caught between becoming and annihilation?; ?their expressions hovering between delight and terror?; ?the ground itself veering ambiguously between earth and sky?. ?Peering out into the world around them?, ?they are? ?beset by creatures that might either beguile or harm them?. ?Says Fang?: "?Although the appearance of a single bald figure might be? ?striking?, ?when they appear as a collective group?, ?individuality will disappear?. ?This was a compelling reason for me to depict them in a group?. ?For people who have been brought up in our cultural background?, ?there is a strong feeling that one has been neglected as an individual in society?." ?
Fang presents a breathtaking vision caught in the state of either becoming or ending?, ?but despite its harrowing qualities?, ?it is? ?rooted in Fang's humanism and concern for the fate of the individual in a collective environment?. ?The Cynical Realist ethos was? ?never simply brutally fatalistic?, ?and Fang is no mere hopeless nihilist here?. ?Whether in the hands of Liu Wei or Yue Minjun?, ?Cynical Realist painters were grounded in subjective?, ?quotidian experience?, ?and it was their desire to reveal the? "?truth?" ?of a social reality they could not accept that drove their creations?, ?even as they approached them through irony?, ?satire?, ?and layered misdirection?. ?For Fang?, ?vagueness and ambiguity is the goal?. ?It is in that ambiguity that all binaries?, ?all politics?, ?struggles?, ?ideologies and malleable experiences that constitute life exist?. ?His then is an ironically utopian apocalypse?, ?or an apocalyptic? ?utopia?, ?one that mocks the imprimatur of ideology on lived experience?, ?suggesting the darker extremes that any utopian vision might lead to?. ?It is through these deliberately disorienting oppositions that we can see how Fang's vision allows for a supple and? ?poetic vision of the human condition?. ?