- 818
Liu Wei
Estimate
12,000,000 - 15,000,000 HKD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed
Description
- Liu Wei
- Revolutionary Family Series – Invitation to Dinner
- oil on canvas
signed in Chinese and dated 1992, 12, framed
Provenance
Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
Acquired by the present owner from the above
Acquired by the present owner from the above
Exhibited
Italy, Venice, Venice Biennale, 1993, p. 541
Literature
Artist Magazine, Taiwan, 1993 July, p. 18 (installation view)
Made by Chinese, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, France, 2002, p. 94 (installation view)
Made by Chinese, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, France, 2002, p. 94 (installation view)
Condition
This work is generally in good condition. Under ultraviolet light, there is a scatter of minor restoration patches mainly on the lower center, with the longest measuring 3cm, and also at the upper part above the two heads. Lower left has a linear restoration mark measuring 5cm located on the dish. All of which are not obvious under natural light and all the paint are in stable and clean condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
The Pinnacle of Cynical Realism
Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner
The early 1990’s was a crucial period in the history of contemporary Chinese art. It witnessed Chinese artists’ entry into the international art scene and participation in major exhibitions worldwide. Among the avant-garde artists who successfully established their international reputation in this period, very few have stood the test of time and remained highly-regarded in the art world after two decades. Liu Wei is one of those rare artists who have maintained his influence in the new century. Liu Wei not only created an exceptional painting style, but also revolutionized the image of contemporary Chinese art. Created in 1992, Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner (Lot 818) is the highlight of the Revolutionary Family series of his early period, which was based on images of his father as a soldier. This painting fully showcases Liu Wei’s idiosyncratic and expressionistic painting style, and is regarded as a conclusive piece to his early career. Its participation in the “Road to the East” special exhibition of the 1993 Venice Biennale also illustrates the importance of this masterpiece.
The 1993 Venice Biennale marked a major breakthrough in Chinese artists’ entry into the Western art world. This was facilitated by Francesca Dal Lago, a cultural attaché of the Italian Embassy, who was familiar with many Chinese artists. The Biennale’s director, Achille Oliva, also had considerable interest in Chinese avant-garde artists and met them in China through Francesca’s arrangement. With the help of critic Li Xianting, Francesca created a shortlist of artists from which Oliva would make his final decision. This process left a deep impression on Oliva, who recalled, “I ate and chatted with the ‘artists’, looked at their works and discussed with them. I did not select the Chinese artists based on a Western preference, but rather through the conversations we had.”1 In this way, a group of fourteen artists were chosen to represent China in Venice, including Liu Wei, Fang Lijun, Wang Guangyi, Zhang Peili, Feng Mengbo, Li Shan, among others. Liu Wei exhibited three paintings: Wedding, Travel Time, and Revolutionary Family Series– Invitation to Dinner, the lot on offer.
These fourteen artists further represented the two major artistic currents identified by Li Xianting: “Political Pop” and “Cynical Realism”. For Oliva, an international curator from a Western cultural background, the two currents accurately reflected the social reality of China in 1990’s. As he said later, “‘Political Pop’ was a sarcastic critique of the system. Pop represented a more liberating artistic language with a social impact. Pop was also judgment on the political level, allowing art to bear a more liberating effect.”2 Like Political Pop, Cynical Realism also represented freedom and liberation, although it used a pessimistic form of expression to critique and satirize political realities. Li Xianting, who had been an active curator with close connections to artists since the 1980’s, called the third generation artists who emerged in the 1990’s as “rascals”. “The ‘rascals’ are fundamentally different from the two preceding generations of artists. They believe neither in the governing system of meanings nor in any effort to construct new meanings through resistance. Instead they pragmatically and realistically confront their own helplessness. If they can rescue anyone, it is themselves. And a sense of boredom is the rascals’ most effective means to undo all shackles of meanings.”3 The nonchalance of the figures in Liu Wei’s early Revolutionary Family series is precisely a manifestation of this boredom.
Liu Wei graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989 and is a representative artist of the post-89’ period. Along with Fang Lijun, another representative painter of Cynical Realism, they have fully captured the ethos of the 1990’s. The two debuted together in an eponymous exhibition in 1992, earning the attention of critics within and beyond China, including the Hong Kong gallery-owner Johnson Chang. Chang invited Liu Wei to participate in the exhibition “China’s New Art Post-89,” which toured internationally in 1993. Afterwards, Liu Wei was invited to other major international events, such as the 1993 and 1995 Venice Biennales, as well as the 1994 Sao Paulo Biennial. By representing Chinese art of the 1990’s, Liu Wei has made a profound impression in the Western art world. Liu Wei began the Revolutionary Family series immediately after graduating. Although paintings from the series were exhibited internationally many times, the production of the entire series covered only three years--from 1990 until 1992--paintings from the series are thus very rarely seen in the market. The series is strongly autobiographical, mostly featuring people from the painter’s life. Liu’s own father, depicted in PLA uniform, is naturally the soul of the series. In the aspect of technique, Liu Wei boldly departed from the official aesthetics of the time, abandoning Socialist Realism for an insouciant figurative style that renders his subjects bizarre or even ugly. Comparing Liu Wei’s early and late works, we find that his style, beginning in an almost complete adherence to realism, gradually became loose and free, indicative of sensibilities unusual among his contemporaries. In contrast to most contemporary Chinese art of the 1980’s, Liu Wei’s works are free of ideological baggage or an artist’s responsibilities; irreverent mischief is his attitude in life and art alike. Thus his paintings have a clear intellectual tendency towards the nonchalance of Cynical Realism identified by Li Xianting.
Completed in 1992, Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner is the masterpiece of the series, from which Liu Wei departed in the same year. The painting continues the style of the series, with a tight composition and vivid, virtuoso application of colours. It features two people seated in front of an ambrosia of Chinese and Western dishes, reflecting the economically thriving China of the 1990’s. Like other important paintings in the Revolutionary Family series, Invitation to Dinner contains the image of Liu Wei’s father in PLA uniform. Here positioned on the right side of the painting, this image has appeared also in Father and Mother (1991), Father in Front of a Television Set (1992), and the monumental triptych Untitled (1992). In these works, the soldier is posed with his left side facing the viewer with the same expression; the only difference is seen in the uniform. In contrast with the other works in the series, only in Invitation to Dinner does the soldier wear a shoulder badge with four stars, indicating the rank of Colonel. To dine with a national leader, one must of course have a considerably high rank. This is also an instance of Liu Wei’s mischief. Aside from the dishes, on the table in Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner are several bottles of Coca-Cola from the United States among the bottles of Chinese Red Star Erguotou wine. Breaking the constraints of space and time, Liu Wei’s fantasy of his father and the Premier dining in front of a green Chinese-style screen bears witness to the varied social realities of the economically thriving 90’s. The inclusion of his father as a soldier follows Liu’s habit of painting subjects from everyday life, but however self-consciously, it also mischievously undoes the customary solemn image of the PLA. Invitation to Dinner demonstrats Liu Wei’s idiosyncratic brushwork, which is at once wet, sticky, finely textured and varied. Refusing to conform to the orthodoxy of Social Realism, Liu uses exaggerated and expressionistic brushwork. He disregards the classical proportions of the human figure as well as the bone and muscular structure of the face, by showing details forbidden in traditional realism. His early paintings laid the crucial foundation for his irreverent and insouciant personal style, with its unconstrained brushwork, liquid pigments, and peculiar beauty of decomposition.
The 1990’s was an era oversaturated with symbols, and it was not easy at all for Liu Wei to persevere in perfecting his painting technique. He later said, “The time before 1993 was very trying, to a large extent psychologically. I was troubled not only by worries about the future, but also by solitude in artistic creation. I have always been lonely. I am not someone who follows trends. Someone who does is not lonely.”4 Liu Wei’s insistence on the painterly aspect of his work has turned him away from the mainstream of symbols-laden painting in the mid-1990’s, and his later works have also strayed away from Cynical Realism. Under this light, Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner not only represents the best of Liu’s early painting style, but also the pinnacle of Cynical Realism. It is extremely rare among works of Chinese contemporary art from the 1990’s that attained wide popularity in the West. In depicting subjects of ordinary life, Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner perfectly embodies Liu Wei’s aesthetics, as he once said, “A true artist should find beauty in the familiar things of his everyday life. Only this is lasting beauty.”5
1 New Weekly, June, 20102
2 “It's very important for Nomadizing of Culture: Zhu Qito Interview With Achille Bonito Oliva”, 2010
3 Li Xianting, “Apathy and Deconstruction in Post ‘89 Art: Analyzing the Trends of ‘Cynical Realism’ and ‘Political Pop”, Coming Out of National Consciousness, 2010
4 Liu Wei, Red Bridge Gallery, p.40
5 Liu Wei, Red BridgeGallery, p.7
Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner
The early 1990’s was a crucial period in the history of contemporary Chinese art. It witnessed Chinese artists’ entry into the international art scene and participation in major exhibitions worldwide. Among the avant-garde artists who successfully established their international reputation in this period, very few have stood the test of time and remained highly-regarded in the art world after two decades. Liu Wei is one of those rare artists who have maintained his influence in the new century. Liu Wei not only created an exceptional painting style, but also revolutionized the image of contemporary Chinese art. Created in 1992, Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner (Lot 818) is the highlight of the Revolutionary Family series of his early period, which was based on images of his father as a soldier. This painting fully showcases Liu Wei’s idiosyncratic and expressionistic painting style, and is regarded as a conclusive piece to his early career. Its participation in the “Road to the East” special exhibition of the 1993 Venice Biennale also illustrates the importance of this masterpiece.
The 1993 Venice Biennale marked a major breakthrough in Chinese artists’ entry into the Western art world. This was facilitated by Francesca Dal Lago, a cultural attaché of the Italian Embassy, who was familiar with many Chinese artists. The Biennale’s director, Achille Oliva, also had considerable interest in Chinese avant-garde artists and met them in China through Francesca’s arrangement. With the help of critic Li Xianting, Francesca created a shortlist of artists from which Oliva would make his final decision. This process left a deep impression on Oliva, who recalled, “I ate and chatted with the ‘artists’, looked at their works and discussed with them. I did not select the Chinese artists based on a Western preference, but rather through the conversations we had.”1 In this way, a group of fourteen artists were chosen to represent China in Venice, including Liu Wei, Fang Lijun, Wang Guangyi, Zhang Peili, Feng Mengbo, Li Shan, among others. Liu Wei exhibited three paintings: Wedding, Travel Time, and Revolutionary Family Series– Invitation to Dinner, the lot on offer.
These fourteen artists further represented the two major artistic currents identified by Li Xianting: “Political Pop” and “Cynical Realism”. For Oliva, an international curator from a Western cultural background, the two currents accurately reflected the social reality of China in 1990’s. As he said later, “‘Political Pop’ was a sarcastic critique of the system. Pop represented a more liberating artistic language with a social impact. Pop was also judgment on the political level, allowing art to bear a more liberating effect.”2 Like Political Pop, Cynical Realism also represented freedom and liberation, although it used a pessimistic form of expression to critique and satirize political realities. Li Xianting, who had been an active curator with close connections to artists since the 1980’s, called the third generation artists who emerged in the 1990’s as “rascals”. “The ‘rascals’ are fundamentally different from the two preceding generations of artists. They believe neither in the governing system of meanings nor in any effort to construct new meanings through resistance. Instead they pragmatically and realistically confront their own helplessness. If they can rescue anyone, it is themselves. And a sense of boredom is the rascals’ most effective means to undo all shackles of meanings.”3 The nonchalance of the figures in Liu Wei’s early Revolutionary Family series is precisely a manifestation of this boredom.
Liu Wei graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989 and is a representative artist of the post-89’ period. Along with Fang Lijun, another representative painter of Cynical Realism, they have fully captured the ethos of the 1990’s. The two debuted together in an eponymous exhibition in 1992, earning the attention of critics within and beyond China, including the Hong Kong gallery-owner Johnson Chang. Chang invited Liu Wei to participate in the exhibition “China’s New Art Post-89,” which toured internationally in 1993. Afterwards, Liu Wei was invited to other major international events, such as the 1993 and 1995 Venice Biennales, as well as the 1994 Sao Paulo Biennial. By representing Chinese art of the 1990’s, Liu Wei has made a profound impression in the Western art world. Liu Wei began the Revolutionary Family series immediately after graduating. Although paintings from the series were exhibited internationally many times, the production of the entire series covered only three years--from 1990 until 1992--paintings from the series are thus very rarely seen in the market. The series is strongly autobiographical, mostly featuring people from the painter’s life. Liu’s own father, depicted in PLA uniform, is naturally the soul of the series. In the aspect of technique, Liu Wei boldly departed from the official aesthetics of the time, abandoning Socialist Realism for an insouciant figurative style that renders his subjects bizarre or even ugly. Comparing Liu Wei’s early and late works, we find that his style, beginning in an almost complete adherence to realism, gradually became loose and free, indicative of sensibilities unusual among his contemporaries. In contrast to most contemporary Chinese art of the 1980’s, Liu Wei’s works are free of ideological baggage or an artist’s responsibilities; irreverent mischief is his attitude in life and art alike. Thus his paintings have a clear intellectual tendency towards the nonchalance of Cynical Realism identified by Li Xianting.
Completed in 1992, Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner is the masterpiece of the series, from which Liu Wei departed in the same year. The painting continues the style of the series, with a tight composition and vivid, virtuoso application of colours. It features two people seated in front of an ambrosia of Chinese and Western dishes, reflecting the economically thriving China of the 1990’s. Like other important paintings in the Revolutionary Family series, Invitation to Dinner contains the image of Liu Wei’s father in PLA uniform. Here positioned on the right side of the painting, this image has appeared also in Father and Mother (1991), Father in Front of a Television Set (1992), and the monumental triptych Untitled (1992). In these works, the soldier is posed with his left side facing the viewer with the same expression; the only difference is seen in the uniform. In contrast with the other works in the series, only in Invitation to Dinner does the soldier wear a shoulder badge with four stars, indicating the rank of Colonel. To dine with a national leader, one must of course have a considerably high rank. This is also an instance of Liu Wei’s mischief. Aside from the dishes, on the table in Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner are several bottles of Coca-Cola from the United States among the bottles of Chinese Red Star Erguotou wine. Breaking the constraints of space and time, Liu Wei’s fantasy of his father and the Premier dining in front of a green Chinese-style screen bears witness to the varied social realities of the economically thriving 90’s. The inclusion of his father as a soldier follows Liu’s habit of painting subjects from everyday life, but however self-consciously, it also mischievously undoes the customary solemn image of the PLA. Invitation to Dinner demonstrats Liu Wei’s idiosyncratic brushwork, which is at once wet, sticky, finely textured and varied. Refusing to conform to the orthodoxy of Social Realism, Liu uses exaggerated and expressionistic brushwork. He disregards the classical proportions of the human figure as well as the bone and muscular structure of the face, by showing details forbidden in traditional realism. His early paintings laid the crucial foundation for his irreverent and insouciant personal style, with its unconstrained brushwork, liquid pigments, and peculiar beauty of decomposition.
The 1990’s was an era oversaturated with symbols, and it was not easy at all for Liu Wei to persevere in perfecting his painting technique. He later said, “The time before 1993 was very trying, to a large extent psychologically. I was troubled not only by worries about the future, but also by solitude in artistic creation. I have always been lonely. I am not someone who follows trends. Someone who does is not lonely.”4 Liu Wei’s insistence on the painterly aspect of his work has turned him away from the mainstream of symbols-laden painting in the mid-1990’s, and his later works have also strayed away from Cynical Realism. Under this light, Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner not only represents the best of Liu’s early painting style, but also the pinnacle of Cynical Realism. It is extremely rare among works of Chinese contemporary art from the 1990’s that attained wide popularity in the West. In depicting subjects of ordinary life, Revolutionary Family Series–Invitation to Dinner perfectly embodies Liu Wei’s aesthetics, as he once said, “A true artist should find beauty in the familiar things of his everyday life. Only this is lasting beauty.”5
1 New Weekly, June, 20102
2 “It's very important for Nomadizing of Culture: Zhu Qito Interview With Achille Bonito Oliva”, 2010
3 Li Xianting, “Apathy and Deconstruction in Post ‘89 Art: Analyzing the Trends of ‘Cynical Realism’ and ‘Political Pop”, Coming Out of National Consciousness, 2010
4 Liu Wei, Red Bridge Gallery, p.40
5 Liu Wei, Red BridgeGallery, p.7