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Pioneers of Modernism: A Selection from The Scheeres Collection Yue Minjun Follow Penguin 2000 signed and dated 'yue minjun [in Pinyin] 2000' lower left oil on canvas 140.3 x 107.8 cm. (55 1/4 x 42 1/2 in.) Painted in 2000.
Provenance Private Collection, Singapore Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited Semarang Contemporary Art Gallery, Fruits of Change , 31 January - 9 February 2004 Literature Zhang Qunsheng, Today’s Chinese Painters, Yue Minjun The Lost Self , Hebei, 2005, p.128 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Regarded as one of the leading representatives of Cynical Realism, a movement characterised by shattered idealism in the wake of the events in the 1980s, Yue Minjun articulates the highly recognisable humorous portraits of himself with the wide-mouthed expression of laughter in Penguin . In this distinctive painting, the iconic laughing character wraps his body around a furry penguin as if he is climbing or clinging onto the large flightless bird. Expressing a slight upward slant of the mouth and squinted eye, the penguin tilts its head back with its javelin-beak as if to share in the hysteric laughter alongside Yue and the viewer perhaps in reaction to the absurdity of the scene. As an artist influenced early in his career by Surrealism and Social Realist propaganda art, Yue masterfully embeds social commentary veiled behind the satirical mask of his guffawing faces to weave China’s tumultuous experience into his work with discretion. Riffing on the upbeat portrayal of proletariat and military heroes portrayed in Socialist paintings and propaganda that proliferated within the visual environment during the Cultural Revolution, Yue’s iconic smiles express the compulsory mask of satisfaction demanded in a society within which the appearance of the masses had become a state priority. (Nazanin Lankarani, ‘The many faces of Yue Minjun ’ New York Times , 5 December 2012). After creating a sensation at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, Yue gained international fame within both the contemporary art market and the permanent collections of numerous museums around the world. As such, the recurring theme of laughter within Yue’s oeuvre has been subject to a multitude of interpretations. Theorist Li Xianting describes Yue’s self-portraits as a “self-ironic response to the spiritual vacuum and folly of modern-day China.” (Li Xianting quoted in ‘Yue Minjun,’ Saatchi Gallery ) In the catalogue accompanying Yue’s retrospective show held in 2012 at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, François Jullien furthermore writes that the frozen laugh of Yue’s work “puts up a wall, makes any interiority off limits, bars any kind of feeling. As nothing more than a series of explosions, it shows that there is nothing to communicate.”(F. Jullien, “No Possible Subject,” in Yue Minjun and Hervé Chandès, Yue Minjun L'Ombre du fou rire , Paris: Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, 2012, pp. 27-34). However, in contrast to Yue’s typically contorted and grotesque compositions, Penguin , moderated by its cool grey tones, exhibits a comparatively warm-hearted scene describing a figure embracing a soft endearing animal, albeit forcibly. Though Yue’s works often showcase manically cackling figures rendered in kitsch candy-coloured tones, the present lot describes a more nuanced approach to the artist’s infamously vacuous expressions. In response to the “post-New Era” of the 1990s that brought forth profound changes to the artistic praxis in China, the penguin resembles a large stuffed-animal toy, an index of the forms of materialism and globalisation pervading the visual landscape at the time. The global attention captured by Yue’s famous laughing characters attest to the artist’s popularity. Today, Yue Minjun continues to paint and sculpt in his studio near Beijing and is celebrated as one of the most influential artists of his generation. Read More Catalogue Essay 岳敏君是中國玩世現實主義的領銜代表藝術家之一，此運動由1980年代的驟然夢碎而激起。藝術家在此幅《企鵝》中勾勒出他標誌性的咧嘴大笑自嘲畫像，而這個經典笑容人物緊挨著一隻毛茸茸的企鵝，好像要爬上去或是奮力抓緊這隻飛不起來的大鳥。企鵝的嘴巴微微上揚，瞇眼斜視，仰著腦袋，張著又尖又長的喙，像是在附和岳敏君的神經質狂笑。觀者也不由對著這滑稽荒謬的場面而苦笑。 岳敏君在藝術事業早期受超現實主義和社會主義樣版畫的影響，其畫作中哈哈大笑的自畫像表面誇張諷刺，內裡蘊藏他對社會狀況的註腳，謹慎融入中國社會中的浮躁與喧鬧。在文化大革命中，人們周遭的視覺環境幾乎全是亢奮人心的勞動階級和抗戰英雄等社會主義繪畫和宣傳品。