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拍品专文
As one of the leaders of the Chinese avant-garde, Yue Minjun's works are immediately recognizable. His signature motif of satirical stylized self-portraits, in multiples, appearing in contorted and absurdist scenarios with a gaping over-sized grin and eyes closed tight, point to his satirical and often cynical worldview. Yue's paintings have been classified as Cynical Realist works, and characteristically, they feature images of the artist laughing uncontrollably and unaware. The humorous grimace, in its repetition and mindless characteristics, transforms Yue's works into something absurd. Yet, it is not absurdity born out of coincidence, but a choice by the artist, where the absurd has dictated a large part of his life. Yue is known to have said that, after 1989 in the immediate aftermath of the Tian'anmen Square tragedy, to laugh seemed the only possible reaction, the only available escape from the loss and disillusionment reality, with which the Chinese people were confronted at the time.
By the early 1990s, Yue's image of himself quickly became the dominant motif of his works. He has in essence turned himself into an "idol," and to him, "idols are reproduced everywhere, and the huge volume of images exerts a tremendous power. Once something is turned into an idol, I can utilize it. Idols have their own life and influence our lives constantly as well, telling us how to act, how to be". Yue's use of his own image as an idol subtly undermines its own iconic power, placing it in ever more absurd and fantastic settings, mocking the faddishness of contemporary society. In Hero (Lot 134) three figures stand gleefully mimicking each other behind a large pink parrot. Parrots are best known for their own arts of impersonation and in this painting it stands high against the backdrop of the bright blue sky and fluffy clouds inherently found in propagandistic images of the communist era as if to further underscore Yue's constructed language as he has stated as a "self-ironic response to the spiritual vacuum and folly of modern-day China." (Yue, quoted in M. Dematte, '48a esposizione internazionale d'arte', La Biennal di Venezia, 1999).
By the early 1990s, Yue's image of himself quickly became the dominant motif of his works. He has in essence turned himself into an "idol," and to him, "idols are reproduced everywhere, and the huge volume of images exerts a tremendous power. Once something is turned into an idol, I can utilize it. Idols have their own life and influence our lives constantly as well, telling us how to act, how to be". Yue's use of his own image as an idol subtly undermines its own iconic power, placing it in ever more absurd and fantastic settings, mocking the faddishness of contemporary society. In Hero (Lot 134) three figures stand gleefully mimicking each other behind a large pink parrot. Parrots are best known for their own arts of impersonation and in this painting it stands high against the backdrop of the bright blue sky and fluffy clouds inherently found in propagandistic images of the communist era as if to further underscore Yue's constructed language as he has stated as a "self-ironic response to the spiritual vacuum and folly of modern-day China." (Yue, quoted in M. Dematte, '48a esposizione internazionale d'arte', La Biennal di Venezia, 1999).