Beschreibung:

Yue Minjun Untitled 2005 Oil on canvas. 220 x 200 cm. (86 5/8 x 78 3/4 in). Signed and dated 'yue minjun 2005' lower left; signed and dated 'yue minjun 2005 [In Chinese]' on the reverse.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Exhibited Shenzhen, He Xiangning Art Museum, Reproduction Icons: Yue Minjun Works: 2004-2006, 3 June – 11 June, 2006 Literature U. Grosneick, C. H. Schubbe, eds., China Art Book, Cologne, 2007, p.560 (illustrated); Exhibition catalogue, He Xiangning Art Museum, Reproduction Icons: Yue Minjun Works 2004-2006, Shenzhen, 2006, p. 74 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay "Since the end of the 1990s, aesthetic images from Nature, such as landscape, gardens, flowers and birds, beasts, even sky and outerspace, have appeared in Yue Minjun's works. He also uses memories born of his personal experience, as well as an exploration of the shifts in aesthetics that mirror the times.The works track reality through a period of social transformation in China. Viewed from this perspective,Yue Minjun's works correspond with the nature of a Chinese society desperate to modernize; in other words, his works exhibit the changing reality during a period of social transformation in China." (B. Feng, ‘To Be is Just Absurd:The Art of Yue Minjun ' Reproduction Icons, Yue Minjun Works, 2004-2006, Shenzhen, 2006, p. 10) The present lot depicts Yue's iconic laughing visages rendered to the point of ironic absurdity.The carefully composed painting is modelled in the style of Chinese propaganda: the five figures' exaggerated merry making is depicted as a striking force of unification, recalling the propaganda images of collective peasants and industrial workers.They wear not revolutionary attire but rather colourful paper hats as if they were at a birthday party, or a beauty pageant. In the background, the geese symbolize the figures' unrestrained lifestyle and state of mind. Large wild birds are usually thought of as free and noble in Chinese culture. Graceful and defenseless creatures, they tend to fly away instead of counter attacking when threatened.Yue's juxtaposition of these great birds with his self-referential symbols of satirical humanity creates an unexpected tableau of modern farce. Read More