Ling Jian

Trained as a painter during the mid-1980s in Beijing's Qinhua Univeristy Art College, Ling Jian (b. 1963) lived in Vienna for some two years before relocating to Germany in 1989. After more than a decade abroad, Ling returned home in 2000 and has since divided his time between Berlin and Beijing.  He has developed a unique signature style that combines an almost photo-realist attention to detail, the simplification of prominent figural forms, and a gestural blurring of the painterly surface that seems an homage to Gerhard Richter.  His quietly eloquent works address many of the dramatic transformations of contemporary China.

Lots 22 and 23 are quintessential examples of the artist’s most recent practice. Beginning in 2005, Ling embarked upon two conceptually diverse bodies of work.  The Palace Servant Series analyzes China’s past, using imperial eunuchs and concubines as the central motif of each painting and embodying the artist’s personal critique of certain ancient cultural practices.  His Communist Sister Series focuses instead upon contemporary China’s ambiguous legacy and the conflict between communist ideology and capitalist desire.  The beautiful portrait faces of seductive, young Chinese females contrast with their drab army uniforms and the anonymity to which the title of each painting relegates them. 

Both Palace Servant IV and Communist Sister – I Can Give You Best Fruit feature oversized portrait faces beautifully painted upon circular canvases.  They likewise feature the blurring of the image with large horizontal strokes, which makes the painting look as though a clean brush or squeegee has been dragged across a still-wet surface.  The oversized, iconic character of the anonymous portraits and the quality of a transparent curtain created by the blurring gesture distance the viewer from the work.  The eyes may speak volumes about the rapidly changing world they witness – the quick horizontal blurs perhaps signifying this fast-paced change – but the enticing figures remain isolated and distant in Ling’s cool painterly world.