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Lot Essay
True artists never stand still, nor are they satisfied with the status quo. Through their immersion in a given proposition, they refine, distil, and create their own artistic language; through repetition, perception, depletion, creation, rejection, and elevation, they perfect their works. Early in his career, Zeng Fanzhi’s Meat and Hospital paintings became known for their depiction of honest and straightforward emotions, which struck at the viewers’ innermost and instinctive sensibilities. The artist moved from Wuhan to Beijing in 1993, and in the new environment he had to interact with strangers frequently. As he became more used platitudes, fakery, and a lack of sincere and genuine friends, he was driven to create the Masks series to study interpersonal relationships.
Mask removes all identifying facial features and cues that signify emotions, aside from the character’s metropolitan clothing, all that is left is a shell hiding one’s true self. Behind a seemingly carefree sceneof the man enjoying afternoon tea with his pet dog, the subject’s mask shows furrowed brows, pursed lips, and he has tense vascular hands that he seems to not know where to place, fully showing man’sinsecurities and struggles. Aside from language, the eye is thoughtto be the easiest way to peer into one’s thinking, but Zeng turnedthe window to the soul into impenetrable crosses, leaving viewersat a loss as to the man’s actual thoughts. The artist deliberately exaggerated the character’s palms because he believed that people’shands would subconsciously betray their nerves and worries; bytaking on the difficult task to present repressed feelings through one’shands, one can see how Zeng challenges established impressions andsymbols. Compared with Meat and Hospital from his earlier period,the sensation of flesh and blood is still patently clear in Mask, which was completed in 1996, except it had been softened and taken on amore “civilized” and elegant form. The depression and melancholy inside hospitals have become man’s obligations and lack of options inmodern society.
Since the inception of the Mask series in 1994, Zeng’s visual metaphorfor urbanites’ mental state have become much more matured by 1996,and this Mask can be said to be exemplary of the artist’s practiced command over this theme. The expression on the false visage is barely distinguishable from real, as the external mask have becomean internalized part of humanity, forming a scathing critique of the modern society’s mode and character. Not many works were createdin the Mask series, and quality examples from the series are even rareron the market.
Across Zeng’s Mask works in the 90s, fine details such as thewatermelon, dogs, light, and shadows occasionally grace a canvas,but only this example combines all of those features in one. The artist’s sketches give us a glimpse of the painstaking work takento balance the work’s composition with the light blocks in the background, to present the heat of the pizza slice, and to render the dripping watermelon juice on the table; these reveal how importantthese elements are even at the conceptual stage of this work. Themultifaceted details in this painting, much like a stage actor’s propshelping the protagonist emote better and the story become richer,makes Mask a much more enjoyable work which is filled withfascinating details. The matching poses between the man and thedog, the casually ripped open watermelon on the table, and thesteaming slice of pizza on the ground seem to be sustenance forthe picture’s subject and his Dalmatian – and food is such a coreprerequisite for life. Typically, portraits that feature dogs and owners(Like Harald Becker’s Man and Dog ) highlight the owner’s status andpower; the similar poses and food in Mask, however, cannot help butbring a grin to one’s face. The juxtaposition between the two subjects’ states reflect the absurdity and struggle of the human condition, and also inject satire and humour into the narrative.
The bright yellow block of light behind the character, his bright blue sweater, and the scarlet red of the watermelon next to him define a triangular focus on the scene, which defines the work’s structure, balances the composition, and brightens the scene at the same time. The use of bright and cheerful colours to depict dark and hidden themes reminds one of the mystery and irony in James Ensor’s The Despair of Pierrot . The use of swaths of khaki to create a vacant and enigmatic background, combined with the use of geometric shapes and high-contrast yellow light blocks, create a discordant yet ordered arrangement, at the same time pushing the character into an alien environment, breaking his link to reality, resulting in a sense of alienation and loss. The watermelon juice is also notably drawn with a translucent impressionist technique, further giving the work an additional layer of expression. These manifold finely-detailed treatments on the canvas all attest to the pinnacle of Zeng’s creativity in the 90s.
The Mask series is not only pivotal to Zeng’s subsequent works, it is
also a shining symbol and key milestone in contemporary Chinese art.
Compared with other Mask works which feature a single subject only, this work is undoubtedly a more comprehensive example of Zeng’s stylistic elements. These elements make the artwork’s narrative much more nuanced and variable, making this work an invaluable masterpiece both thematically and in terms of technique. This persistence and willingness to hone and refine works from the same series is what made Zeng’s works so uniquely capable of capturing the world’s attention over the past decades, and undoubtedly in the decades to come as well.
Mask removes all identifying facial features and cues that signify emotions, aside from the character’s metropolitan clothing, all that is left is a shell hiding one’s true self. Behind a seemingly carefree sceneof the man enjoying afternoon tea with his pet dog, the subject’s mask shows furrowed brows, pursed lips, and he has tense vascular hands that he seems to not know where to place, fully showing man’sinsecurities and struggles. Aside from language, the eye is thoughtto be the easiest way to peer into one’s thinking, but Zeng turnedthe window to the soul into impenetrable crosses, leaving viewersat a loss as to the man’s actual thoughts. The artist deliberately exaggerated the character’s palms because he believed that people’shands would subconsciously betray their nerves and worries; bytaking on the difficult task to present repressed feelings through one’shands, one can see how Zeng challenges established impressions andsymbols. Compared with Meat and Hospital from his earlier period,the sensation of flesh and blood is still patently clear in Mask, which was completed in 1996, except it had been softened and taken on amore “civilized” and elegant form. The depression and melancholy inside hospitals have become man’s obligations and lack of options inmodern society.
Since the inception of the Mask series in 1994, Zeng’s visual metaphorfor urbanites’ mental state have become much more matured by 1996,and this Mask can be said to be exemplary of the artist’s practiced command over this theme. The expression on the false visage is barely distinguishable from real, as the external mask have becomean internalized part of humanity, forming a scathing critique of the modern society’s mode and character. Not many works were createdin the Mask series, and quality examples from the series are even rareron the market.
Across Zeng’s Mask works in the 90s, fine details such as thewatermelon, dogs, light, and shadows occasionally grace a canvas,but only this example combines all of those features in one. The artist’s sketches give us a glimpse of the painstaking work takento balance the work’s composition with the light blocks in the background, to present the heat of the pizza slice, and to render the dripping watermelon juice on the table; these reveal how importantthese elements are even at the conceptual stage of this work. Themultifaceted details in this painting, much like a stage actor’s propshelping the protagonist emote better and the story become richer,makes Mask a much more enjoyable work which is filled withfascinating details. The matching poses between the man and thedog, the casually ripped open watermelon on the table, and thesteaming slice of pizza on the ground seem to be sustenance forthe picture’s subject and his Dalmatian – and food is such a coreprerequisite for life. Typically, portraits that feature dogs and owners(Like Harald Becker’s Man and Dog ) highlight the owner’s status andpower; the similar poses and food in Mask, however, cannot help butbring a grin to one’s face. The juxtaposition between the two subjects’ states reflect the absurdity and struggle of the human condition, and also inject satire and humour into the narrative.
The bright yellow block of light behind the character, his bright blue sweater, and the scarlet red of the watermelon next to him define a triangular focus on the scene, which defines the work’s structure, balances the composition, and brightens the scene at the same time. The use of bright and cheerful colours to depict dark and hidden themes reminds one of the mystery and irony in James Ensor’s The Despair of Pierrot . The use of swaths of khaki to create a vacant and enigmatic background, combined with the use of geometric shapes and high-contrast yellow light blocks, create a discordant yet ordered arrangement, at the same time pushing the character into an alien environment, breaking his link to reality, resulting in a sense of alienation and loss. The watermelon juice is also notably drawn with a translucent impressionist technique, further giving the work an additional layer of expression. These manifold finely-detailed treatments on the canvas all attest to the pinnacle of Zeng’s creativity in the 90s.
The Mask series is not only pivotal to Zeng’s subsequent works, it is
also a shining symbol and key milestone in contemporary Chinese art.
Compared with other Mask works which feature a single subject only, this work is undoubtedly a more comprehensive example of Zeng’s stylistic elements. These elements make the artwork’s narrative much more nuanced and variable, making this work an invaluable masterpiece both thematically and in terms of technique. This persistence and willingness to hone and refine works from the same series is what made Zeng’s works so uniquely capable of capturing the world’s attention over the past decades, and undoubtedly in the decades to come as well.