Yue Minjun

“Yue Minjun is the most influential artist of the School of Cynical Realism in China. The style of his language is to make manifest the emptiness of the present spiritual world through the repeated use of his own image as model. This model assumes various weird and humorous poses, and cheeky grinning expressions in a self-mocking description of these actions and expressions. In addition, the simple approach to draw a palette of color that is both gaudy and drab in the manner of commercial media all help to contrive an atmosphere of superficiality, humor and boredom. The most striking feature of Yue Minjun's work is the visual power produced by the yet simplistic symbolism that can be found in Pop art.” - Li Xianting (Chinese Artists of Today: Yue Minjun, The Lost Self, Hebei, 2005, p.16)