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Lot Essay
ZengFanzhi'smMask series represents the voice of a generation during a time when China was going through rapid social, political and economic changes. Through the portraits, Zeng explored the ironic gap between public and private truths, the honesty of emotional expression in modern Chinese society, and in the process exposing the psychological torment felt by those compelled into new social roles. Zeng not only documents such anxieties but also his struggles with loneliness and isolation as a newcomer to a cosmopolitan city. He identified with individuals who were overwhelmed by a sense of alienation felt in rapidly changing urban settings and obligation of social performance imposed on urban China's aspiring cosmopolitans. As an Artist, this dynamic and frenzied moment in time, ignited in him an urge to explore new artistic expression and prove to be fertile ground for artistic growth and development.
At the time when Zeng first arrived in Beijing in the 1990s, Zeng he hads already created his Meat and Hospital series (Ffig. 1) where his forceful expressionistic brushwork has already gained him critical recognition. With his Mask Series paintings, Zeng ultimately captured the existential zeitgeist and was able to distinguish himself from his contemporaries. The art critic Pi Daojian, a Professor at the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts put it most succinctly, "Zeng started his artistic activity from a higher place than the '85 Generation. He did not need to think, as they did, about how to use artistic tactics to criticize culture or society or pursue the sublimeK He was never burdened with thinking about how others painted; he just followed his heart, using colors and line to express the difficulties and loneliness of contemporary life."
In Mask Series - 2000 - B-3 (Lot 43), a man is wearing a three three-piece suit and leather shoes with one hand in his pocket and the other holding a cigar, every bit a man about town. His stance is confident and assured, with a broad smile on his mask, and the expanse of the sea behind him, he is almost picture perfect. The only give awaygiveaways are are his throbbing hands and forehead. The figure is portrayed as extravagant, with all the trappings of a gentleman, akin to the style of Max Beckmann Self-portrait in Tuxedo (Ffig. 5); Zeng once described his style of depiction: "I intend to make it distinctly sumptuous, so that it becomes distinctly fictitious, almost resembling a stage backdrop. The way people gesticulate - much like waiting for someone to photograph them - is simply a way of self-comforting. Their hands, too, are a feigned, pompous makeup of the urbanites."
Since its first appearance in the early 1990s, the Mask Series has evolved stylistically. The style of the later period has been noted by the art critic Li Xianting, "ZengFanzhi's figures have learned to relax." (Ffig. 3)The Mask Series - 2000- B-3belongs to this later period, indeed the colors have brightened and the brushstrokes have become more formal and refined. The skyline is no longer in one tone, but rather glide between shades of blue and beige, alluding to the colors of Mark Rothko's paintings like Untitled (Red, Blue, Orange) (Fig. 4). The skyline alludes to the colors of David Hockney's A Bigger Splash (Fig. 4).The perspective here remains flat, and the long vertical scroll format are akin to the style of traditional Chinese paintings. The early works were as Li Xianting explained, "The flat background that emerges is at the same time both shadowy and insubstantial. There is a sense of suspension between reality and unreality, accentuated by the presence of the unexplainable shadows and traces of light coming from nowhere, pushing the characters into an alien..." (Ffig. 2) In Mask Series - 2000- B-3, the context of the back ground is more concrete. Shadows or non-descript spaces has given way to an aqua blue ocean with horizontal railings and standing ground.
Not only has the artistic style of the Mask Series evolved but the meaning and significance of the emblematic mask itself. It has shifted from a negative connotation of being an imposition by society to a skill one strives to acquire to gain mastery over life's circumstances and to gain social status. Johnson Chang explained, "By assuming a public face, the self has assumed power. In forsaking the passivity of the tortured, [the mask figure] is now able to act - and interact - as a social being." Here in Mask Series - 2000 - B-3, the figure is comparatively more comfortable behind the mask, one could perhaps envision the helpless newcomer to the city has developed his social skills and rose through the ranks of society and achieved social prominence. Therefore, in Mask Series - 2000 - B-3, the mask is no longer forced upon oneself but rather becomes a sought after symbol of status and power.
At the time when Zeng first arrived in Beijing in the 1990s, Zeng he hads already created his Meat and Hospital series (Ffig. 1) where his forceful expressionistic brushwork has already gained him critical recognition. With his Mask Series paintings, Zeng ultimately captured the existential zeitgeist and was able to distinguish himself from his contemporaries. The art critic Pi Daojian, a Professor at the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts put it most succinctly, "Zeng started his artistic activity from a higher place than the '85 Generation. He did not need to think, as they did, about how to use artistic tactics to criticize culture or society or pursue the sublimeK He was never burdened with thinking about how others painted; he just followed his heart, using colors and line to express the difficulties and loneliness of contemporary life."
In Mask Series - 2000 - B-3 (Lot 43), a man is wearing a three three-piece suit and leather shoes with one hand in his pocket and the other holding a cigar, every bit a man about town. His stance is confident and assured, with a broad smile on his mask, and the expanse of the sea behind him, he is almost picture perfect. The only give awaygiveaways are are his throbbing hands and forehead. The figure is portrayed as extravagant, with all the trappings of a gentleman, akin to the style of Max Beckmann Self-portrait in Tuxedo (Ffig. 5); Zeng once described his style of depiction: "I intend to make it distinctly sumptuous, so that it becomes distinctly fictitious, almost resembling a stage backdrop. The way people gesticulate - much like waiting for someone to photograph them - is simply a way of self-comforting. Their hands, too, are a feigned, pompous makeup of the urbanites."
Since its first appearance in the early 1990s, the Mask Series has evolved stylistically. The style of the later period has been noted by the art critic Li Xianting, "ZengFanzhi's figures have learned to relax." (Ffig. 3)The Mask Series - 2000- B-3belongs to this later period, indeed the colors have brightened and the brushstrokes have become more formal and refined. The skyline is no longer in one tone, but rather glide between shades of blue and beige, alluding to the colors of Mark Rothko's paintings like Untitled (Red, Blue, Orange) (Fig. 4). The skyline alludes to the colors of David Hockney's A Bigger Splash (Fig. 4).The perspective here remains flat, and the long vertical scroll format are akin to the style of traditional Chinese paintings. The early works were as Li Xianting explained, "The flat background that emerges is at the same time both shadowy and insubstantial. There is a sense of suspension between reality and unreality, accentuated by the presence of the unexplainable shadows and traces of light coming from nowhere, pushing the characters into an alien..." (Ffig. 2) In Mask Series - 2000- B-3, the context of the back ground is more concrete. Shadows or non-descript spaces has given way to an aqua blue ocean with horizontal railings and standing ground.
Not only has the artistic style of the Mask Series evolved but the meaning and significance of the emblematic mask itself. It has shifted from a negative connotation of being an imposition by society to a skill one strives to acquire to gain mastery over life's circumstances and to gain social status. Johnson Chang explained, "By assuming a public face, the self has assumed power. In forsaking the passivity of the tortured, [the mask figure] is now able to act - and interact - as a social being." Here in Mask Series - 2000 - B-3, the figure is comparatively more comfortable behind the mask, one could perhaps envision the helpless newcomer to the city has developed his social skills and rose through the ranks of society and achieved social prominence. Therefore, in Mask Series - 2000 - B-3, the mask is no longer forced upon oneself but rather becomes a sought after symbol of status and power.