Lot 1047
  • 1047

Fang Lijun

Estimate
18,000,000 - 24,000,000 HKD
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Description

  • Fang Lijun
  • 1996.4
  • oil on canvas
  • 180.5 by 230 cm.; 71 by 90½ in.
signed in Chinese and titled in English; signed in Chinese, titled in English and dated 1996 on the reverse, framed

Provenance

Galerie Serieuze Zaken, Amsterdam
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Exhibited

Japan, Tokyo, Fang Lijun: Human Images in an Uncertain Age, The Japan Foundation Asia Center, 2 November - 1 December, 1996, p. 59
Netherlands, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Fang Lijun, 28 February - 13 April, 1998, p. 822
Netherlands, Groningen, Gasunie Galerij, Chinese Walls, April 2000, plate 10
Netherlands, Groningen, Groninger Museum, Go China! Writing on the Wall: Chinese New Realism and Avant-garde in the Eighties and Nineties, 23 March - 26 October 2008, pp. 92-93

Literature

Fang Lijun, Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, China, 2001, pl. 123
Chinese Artists of Today: Fang Lijun, Hebei Education Press, Shijiazhuang, China, 2006, p. 159
Collected Edition of Chinese Oil Painters: Volume of Fang Lijun, Chengdu, Sichuan, Fine Arts Publishing House, China, 2006, pp. 72-73
Endlessness of Life: 25 Years of Retrospect of Fang Lijun, Artist Publishing Co., Taipei, Taiwan, 2009, p. 75
Fang Lijun, Culture And Art Publishing House, Beijing, China, 2010, p. 267

Condition

This work is generally in good condition. There are minor soiling and wear in handling marks around the edges. Having examined the work under ultraviolet light, there appears to be no evidence of restoration.
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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

Gazing at the Sea
Fang Lijun

In the 1990s, Chinese artists received an unprecedented amount of attention from the global art world. Political Pop and Cynical Realism featured prominently in major international exhibitions. One of the most important Cynical Realists, Fang Lijun is among the very first contemporary Chinese artists to receive academic recognition and to have works collected by museums. His signature bald figures are the very soul of his art and avatars for the artist himself, but at the same time they also embody the existential ennui and mentality of the Chinese in the 1990s. Among the bald figures, the one facing an ocean with his back turned towards the viewer is the most representative, combining Fang Lijun’s two major themes: bald heads and oceans. This figure first appeared in a painting of 1991 and then reappeared many times. Fang created 1996.4 (Lot 1047) in his most mature stage, and this large-scale work, measuring 2.5 metres in width, is truly a masterpiece. That it is museum-quality is evidenced by 1995.2, currently in the M+/Sigg Collection and of the same dimensions.

In 1996, 1996.4 was exhibited in the solo show “Fang Lijun” at the Japan Foundation, which was Fang’s first major retrospective. It presented 45 works, ranging from his early sketches to his latest large-scale oil paintings. The inclusion of 1996.4 indicates its significance to the artist. In 1998, when Fang Lijun concluded a year of creative work in the Netherlands with a solo show at the Royal Academy of Art and the Stedelijk Museum in Amstersdam, he again included 1996.4.

Since the end of the 1980s, Fang Lijun dabbled with the motif of the bald headed character in sketches and drawings.  He always bestowed these characters with a mien of ennui and lethargy, gave them indistinct gestures with no discernable intent then placed them in alternative, enigmatic spaces.  Li Xianting called them “bald rascals” and proceeded to name Fang Lijun the primary proponent of “Cynical Realism.” 

In contrast to the current of resistance exhibited by most artists of the ’85 Art Movement, an air of dissociation characterised Fang’s imagery.  Unafraid to make a mockery of himself, he proposed as his solution to the desperate cry for self-help these very rascals.  Forces of urbanisation and commercialisation were sweeping across contemporary China.  Unequipped to adapt, subject to marginalisation, wedged into a state of disorientation, members of society are left with no choice but to detach, to yawn and maybe even to chuckle. The bald head image suggests boredom and mischief in life, as well as self-mockery for the artist, it was the perfect image to capture the ethos of the early 1990s. “I noticed that although a shaved head on its own is very striking, its individuality disappears in a group of shaved heads. I found the idea very compelling that an individual person’s feeling of being omitted and ignored in society is especially strong in our culture.”1

During the four years he spent at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Fang Lijun received formal training in painting and he sought perfection in portraiture.  In preparation for his graduation exhibition in 1988, he went on an excursion with his classmates to Yunnan in search of inspiration and materials, yet he returned empty-handed.  Back on campus, he happened upon a photo album belonging to classmate Zhang Linhai.  It was filled with pictures of the local peasants from his hometown in Hebei.  Fang quickly produced a group of drawings based on these images.  The figures in these pictures were all bald-headed.  The works were exhibited at “China/Avant-Garde” the following year.  “The ‘bald head’ in my imagery has taken on a tenor of ambiguity: a soldier, a criminal, a great or an evil person, anybody can be bald…the only bald-headed man might stand out in a crowd but in throngs, that uniqueness disappears.  This paradigm resonates with me quite strongly, because to me that is precisely the condition of an individual as part of society. To be neglected, to be ignored, to be disregarded, these feelings ring true especially with the people of our cultural background,” Fang Lijun has said at an interview with “Beijing Youth Daily” in 2006.

The bald head is no doubt Fang Lijun’s signature motif, and the bald head seen up-close and from the back is an especially important symbol. Repeatedly in his paintings, Fang combines the two important symbols of a bald head and an ocean. “For me, it is most important to be concerned with people.”2 Fang Lijun is most preoccupied with humans and humanity. Even when submerged in water or floating in an ocean, the human figure remains Fang Lijun’s primary subject. “I believe that human nature is not bound by standards and rules, contrary to our past proclamations about its goodness or evilness. I would like to convey and provoke debate about this understanding through painting. Human nature is the same as a leather ball--kick it and you cannot predict where it will roll. Water is very close to my understanding of human nature. Water is liquid, not rule-bound. When you look at it, it changes. Sometimes you think it is very beautiful, very comfortable, but sometimes you think it is terrifying.”3 “Water is uncertain, like human feelings. Sometimes it is comforting, sometimes scary. You can’t live without water and need water, but too much water will drown you.”4 Humans rely on water for survival, and the two always remain in an ambiguous relationship. Seen from an artistic perspective, this indeterminacy and malleability is the reason for his later fixation on water as a theme in painting.

The bald head facing an ocean and seen from the back made its first appearance in Fang Lijun’s oeuvre in Series 2.11 of 1991. It then disappeared for 4 years before reappearing in the similar composition 1995.2, which is now in the M+/Sigg Collection in Hong Kong. The third appearance was in the lot on offer, 1996.4, a monumental painting measuring 2.5 metres in width and 1.8 metres in height and of a larger scale than other works in the series. Standing in front of this absorbing painting, we find ourselves gazing into the ocean just like the bald man in a pink shirt within the painting. The object of this shared gaze is different in 1996.4 than in the two previous paintings; it is not swimmers or a row spectators facing us, but two identical figures with their backs turned towards us. With their indistinct presence, Fang Lijun invites the viewer to identify with his created character and gaze at another version of himself. The reuse of painting techniques is a central feature of Cynical Realism, especially in many of Fang Lijun’s important works. It pokes fun at the tedium and meaninglessness of modern life in the 1990s. Moreover, the figures turned away from us in the ocean also evoke the dissipation of the individual in the collective, as well as the effort by Chinese people in a post-collective age to find and define themselves. The ocean represents the collective. The artist’s gaze into it represents his concern for and observation of the Chinese people—a gaze both humanistic and historical.

1 “Fang Lijun: Aware of the ‘Baldhead’”, Beijing Youth Paper, 2006

2 “Artist’s notes on art, 1994,” Fang Lijun, Lü Peng, Liu Chun (ed.), Critical Essays on Fang Lijun, Culture and Art Press, 2010.8

3 “Fang Lijun’s oral narration,” from the teaching assistant training course convened by Yin Jinan on 18th December, 1998.

4 Refer to 2