Beschreibung:

Yang Shaobin (China, Tangshan 1963) 2001-8, No. 25 Signed, dated 2001-8 and numbered 25 l.l. Oil on canvas, 70.2 x 90.3 cm Provenance: Prüss & Ochs Gallery, Berlin (2001) N.B.: Yang Shaobin is one of the leading masters of the contemporary Chinese avant-garde, but his works display a more sensitive artistic interpretation of the typical cynical realism in China. Yang developed a style in which he constantly switches between realism, in the form of precise depiction of anatomical detail, and pure abstraction. His paintings don’t depict stories but scenes that are free to interpret and in which cause and effect remain unknown. Yang grew up in a mining village, the figures in his paintings embody the feelings and frustrations of the anonymous workers. For many years China was affected by enormous social, economical and political changes, which posed a constant struggle to survive for the common man. Paintings by Yang scream in silence. In his red paintings, in which male figures are entangled in a merciless battle, this dramatic force comes to the fore. The figures, enveloped in a deep-red background, are represented in close-up. As one takes a closer look at the work, one is submerged in a colourfulness of great artistic sensitivity, fully separated from the earlier overwhelming interpretation of the painting. His series of grey paintings is more reserved. In these works he grants more room to the inner contradictions of his figures. The male figures, completely rendered in various shades of grey, almost seem to float weightlessly in the image. Yang is also called the Francis Bacon of contemporary Asian art, due to his dramatic force. Both artists have painted elusive scenes with desperate figures, portraits of vulnerable persons almost floating in a free space. The paintings by Yang are characterised by an unambiguous and relentless beauty and never fail to affect the viewer.