.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
“THE WAY I TREAT THE CANVAS IS AKIN TO AN INSTALLATION ARTIST. I CAN ADD, SUBTRACT, TRANSFORM OR CREATE A SCENE. WHAT I WANT TO CONFRONT IS THE INEVITABILITY OF EXTINGUISHMENT AND ANNIHILATION.”
At first glance, Yuan Yuan’s works appear to be primarily concerned with the precise depiction of sophisticated scenes. We are mesmerised by the artist’s selection of extravagant venues as his subject, and are impressed by his painterly prowess. Yet, the majesty of his work is always shrouded in an atmosphere of desolation, compelling closer investigation.
When depicting interior scenes, Yuan Yuan often paints in a detached manner. His work differs from Hubert Robert’s paintings of famous ruins in landscapes, which are showcased in order to rhapsodise upon the timeless greatness of history and nature. Yuan Yuan, on the other hand, has chosen to depict an abandoned space that is devoid of people. Through his meticulous division of space and composition, this confined space is infused with a strong sense of tension. In Thermae, the familiar linear perspective creates a reassuringly realistic scene. As the viewers’ gazes follow the baroque staircase inwards, we descend into the pool and continue to wander in front of the lavishly built bookcases and marvel at the gold dome above. Yet we cannot help but be suspicious of this eerily beautiful space — a composite image created by the artist’s imagination.
Yuan Yuan constructs a mysterious atmosphere with these architectural and interior elements. He also scored the wet painting surface horizontally with a palette knife to create the effect of static or interference that is commonly seen in video recordings when the signal is poor. The outcome is a surreal realm where the internal elements are dissonant with one another. Surrealist painter Paul Delvaux often depicted scenes that are similarly enigmatic; an undercurrent of restlessness and sadness hides beneath the wooden expressions of the women he painted. In comparison, the perpetual absence of figures is an important feature in Yuan Yuan’s work. Along with this absence, the dramatic presentation of the traces that they have left behind also contributed to the construction of a parallel universe that is devoid of people. This type of objective yet strange image has a certain allure — be it motivated by voyeuristic tendencies or curiosity for the unknown, we inevitably have an intense desire to enter the realm behind the picture or the dream that is depicted.
As one of the top students at the China Academy of Art, Yuan Yuan acquired his art education during the era of Socialist Realism. His talent for realist painting is undeniable, yet he does not belong to the school of realism. When he renders each individual piece of stone in a mosaic, viewers can undoubtedly feel the artist’s ascetic-like determination and obsession with performing repetitive gestures. His stubbornness in capturing detail serves the purpose of building a foundation of surrealistic story-telling. Our dreams are never abstract — as such, the artist is attempting to respond to reality, and not to deny it, in order to awaken the images that viewers have seen in their dreams. The extremely delicate depiction of mosaic tiles and interior architectural features in an orderly fashion engulfs the viewers in a surrealistic fantasy. Yuan Yuan’s treatment of conflating reality with fantasy differs from Giorgio de Chirico’s, who is famous for depicting scenes of desolation that reside in the subconscious. Even though both present scenes of organic structural order, elements of Giorgio de Chirico’s works are not rationally proportionate, the lights do not follow natural laws, and the space do not correspond to reality. As such, viewers can only look into his spaces, but cannot enter.
Yuan Yuan’s works never intend to represent reality. What they are concerned with is not the nature of space but the sense of vacantness that transcends physical reality. With his beautifully rendered pictures, he responds to the psychological state of humans and the contemporary society at large. In an interview, Yuan Yuan said, “The way I treat the canvas is akin to an installation artist. I can add, subtract, transform or create a scene. What I want to confront is the inevitability of extinguishment and annihilation.” This sense of emptiness, sombreness, and decay is a recurring motif in his work. Anything associated with human presence is swallowed up by the architecture. The result is that when viewers look at Yuan Yuan’s work, they can connect wholeheartedly with the entire scene and its history without any interference.
At first glance, Yuan Yuan’s works appear to be primarily concerned with the precise depiction of sophisticated scenes. We are mesmerised by the artist’s selection of extravagant venues as his subject, and are impressed by his painterly prowess. Yet, the majesty of his work is always shrouded in an atmosphere of desolation, compelling closer investigation.
When depicting interior scenes, Yuan Yuan often paints in a detached manner. His work differs from Hubert Robert’s paintings of famous ruins in landscapes, which are showcased in order to rhapsodise upon the timeless greatness of history and nature. Yuan Yuan, on the other hand, has chosen to depict an abandoned space that is devoid of people. Through his meticulous division of space and composition, this confined space is infused with a strong sense of tension. In Thermae, the familiar linear perspective creates a reassuringly realistic scene. As the viewers’ gazes follow the baroque staircase inwards, we descend into the pool and continue to wander in front of the lavishly built bookcases and marvel at the gold dome above. Yet we cannot help but be suspicious of this eerily beautiful space — a composite image created by the artist’s imagination.
Yuan Yuan constructs a mysterious atmosphere with these architectural and interior elements. He also scored the wet painting surface horizontally with a palette knife to create the effect of static or interference that is commonly seen in video recordings when the signal is poor. The outcome is a surreal realm where the internal elements are dissonant with one another. Surrealist painter Paul Delvaux often depicted scenes that are similarly enigmatic; an undercurrent of restlessness and sadness hides beneath the wooden expressions of the women he painted. In comparison, the perpetual absence of figures is an important feature in Yuan Yuan’s work. Along with this absence, the dramatic presentation of the traces that they have left behind also contributed to the construction of a parallel universe that is devoid of people. This type of objective yet strange image has a certain allure — be it motivated by voyeuristic tendencies or curiosity for the unknown, we inevitably have an intense desire to enter the realm behind the picture or the dream that is depicted.
As one of the top students at the China Academy of Art, Yuan Yuan acquired his art education during the era of Socialist Realism. His talent for realist painting is undeniable, yet he does not belong to the school of realism. When he renders each individual piece of stone in a mosaic, viewers can undoubtedly feel the artist’s ascetic-like determination and obsession with performing repetitive gestures. His stubbornness in capturing detail serves the purpose of building a foundation of surrealistic story-telling. Our dreams are never abstract — as such, the artist is attempting to respond to reality, and not to deny it, in order to awaken the images that viewers have seen in their dreams. The extremely delicate depiction of mosaic tiles and interior architectural features in an orderly fashion engulfs the viewers in a surrealistic fantasy. Yuan Yuan’s treatment of conflating reality with fantasy differs from Giorgio de Chirico’s, who is famous for depicting scenes of desolation that reside in the subconscious. Even though both present scenes of organic structural order, elements of Giorgio de Chirico’s works are not rationally proportionate, the lights do not follow natural laws, and the space do not correspond to reality. As such, viewers can only look into his spaces, but cannot enter.
Yuan Yuan’s works never intend to represent reality. What they are concerned with is not the nature of space but the sense of vacantness that transcends physical reality. With his beautifully rendered pictures, he responds to the psychological state of humans and the contemporary society at large. In an interview, Yuan Yuan said, “The way I treat the canvas is akin to an installation artist. I can add, subtract, transform or create a scene. What I want to confront is the inevitability of extinguishment and annihilation.” This sense of emptiness, sombreness, and decay is a recurring motif in his work. Anything associated with human presence is swallowed up by the architecture. The result is that when viewers look at Yuan Yuan’s work, they can connect wholeheartedly with the entire scene and its history without any interference.