Wang Guangyi

Private Collection, Switzerland

This work is in good condition overall. There are some very light cracks scattered on the surface of the black paint, mostly in the upper part of the work. There are silver paint accretions scattered along the far edges of the work, mostly on the left and top edges. Along the lower left edge, there is scattered paint loss and wearing is perceptible along the lower edge of the painting and the lower right and left corners. This work is framed and was not examined out of frame nor under UV light.
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.
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Wang Guangyi paints the predicament of contemporary China, just as Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell captured that of America in its early-to-mid-20^th-century glory years.  Each, in his own way, depicts a slice of everyday life:  Hopper focused on the expansive if alienating solitude of American life and the subtle glory of vernacular architecture; Rockwell memorialized the earnest idealism of daily interactions and neighborly relationships of small-town America; and Wang highlights the ever-present clash between China's Communist past and consumerist present.  Hopper and Rockwell were, of course, realist painters in their true-to-life imaging of recognizable subjects in actual places; Wang on the other hand raids China's visual databank of Communist propaganda and juxtaposes it with hand-painted logos of the West's increasingly ubiquitous fashion houses and corporate giants.  However, all three artists share the achievement of capturing the essence of the domestic culture unfolding around them.  They crystallize in visual form the main themes in their society, creating icons-as-art that, in the case of Hopper and Rockwell, have indeed come to represent chapters in American cultural history.  In the case of Wang, his oeuvre will likely symbolize for the future the transformations of China that are here and now.

It is that very aspect of Wang's The Great Criticism series that makes it so compelling and sought after; it is the quintessential catalog of a country in flux, replete with the brand names of capital that distinguish the present ideology from that of that of the recent past.  Wang's Dior, Hermes, Visa and Dell logos (Lots 173-175) evidence the artist's critical position vis-à-vis China's so-called modernization and the proliferation of Western branding that has come with it.  Yet in placing globally recognized names in proximity to images of the way things were (the old China and its concern for socialist uniformity and pride), Wang's critique cuts both ways.  While the visual symbols Wang deploys might initially seem wholly at odds with each other, the distinction breaks down upon further reflection.  For in "selling" an idea and "spreading" a repetitive message, the corporate logos and Communist propaganda images of Wang's works do essentially the same thing:  they instruct the viewer to follow their lead, compelling their consumer to buy into a way of thinking or a certain lifestyle.  Wang's ingenious combination of imagery from the corporate propaganda machine and the Cultural Revolution epitomizes China's current tightrope walk between its past and its future.  Wang seems to say that Fendi and Mao might not be so distant from each other in their quest to instill certain ideals and aspirations in fertile minds. 

Two other works here, Masterpiece Covered with Industrial Paint (1989, Lot 21) and The Great Criticism Series (Pop Art) from 2005 (Lot 22) make critical reference to the role of Western art in contemporary China, a tradition that is certainly nothing new.  In the early 18^th-century, the Italian Jesuit missionary Giuseppe Castiglione traveled to China and became a court painter, specializing in Chinese-style landscapes populated with Western-style horses.  His celebrated work captured the cultural exchange of his time, just as Wang Guangyi's presents the world of global exchange that has taken root in China today.  Wang's gesture of oozing black paint over a copy of Michelangelo's sketch from Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (1508-1512) and his nod to Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein under the umbrella of "Pop Art," with a figure holding Mao's (not-so) Little Red Book high in the sky, makes one thing very clear:  although China's transformation is radical and fast-paced, the idea of cultures colliding—and indeed melding—is simply a fact of life.  Wang grabs hold of that life and serves it up to us with direct, unapologetic gusto, much as Mao, Chanel, Rockwell, and Hopper did.  Like his principal forebear Andy Warhol, Wang Guangyi is a true mirror of his times.

-Eric Shiner