Yue Minjun

Galerie de France, Paris
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Paris, Galerie de France, C'est moi, c'est nous Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Zhang Xiaogang, 2001

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is brighter and more vibrant in the original, particularly the pink flesh tones which are much more saturated. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is a small horizontal rub mark in the lower left corner towards the lower edge and a very faint small horizontal rub mark towards the lower centre. There are two minute losses along the lower right edge and a minor inconsistancy to the canvas along the extreme lower left edge. No restoration is apparent under ultra-violet light.
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Set against a twilight sky of midnight blue, Fools in the Night depicts a row of eleven male figures, seemingly free-falling towards the earth's surface, their faces contorted by maniacal grins to such an extent that the veins in the side of their neck are bulging under the stress. Based on a generic self-image, the cynical grimace that has become the artist's trademark is reiterated in a receding line that almost fills the breadth of this monumental canvas, its symbolism emphasised through repetition. Symbolising the artist's resignation and disdain towards his oppressive political environment, past and present, this absurdist, inane beaming smile has come to represent the frustrations of an entire generation and one of the most powerful icons of art in China. As Karen Smith says, "This face, his face, and that incorrigible laugh, has become one of the foremost icons of contemporary Chinese art and, in many ways, a symbol of the shifting sensibilities of an entire generation."  Karen Smith in Exhibition Catalogue, Shenzen, He Xiangning Art Museum, Reproduction Icons: Yue Minjun Works, 2004-2006, 2006, p. 16

 

Of all the schools that emerged in the wake of the New Art Movement in China, the Cynical Realists, spearheaded by Yue Minjun, were the youngest and most energetic. Their mockery of the world illustrated their scepticism and mistrust of terms such as modernisation, advance and reform in the face of the State's duplicity. These clones of the artist, often appearing with closed eyes as in the present work, stand as a metaphor for the superannuated principles of collectivism and egalitarianism championed by the State which in fact inhibited individualism and artistic creativity. Until 1991 when he moved to Beijing and lived with Fang Lijun in the artists' village in Yuanmingyuan, Yue Minjun spent his entire life in a danwei or state run work commune, where everyone had to conform to standardised dress and obey a tyrannical regime. This was the plight of many in China, which is why "the act of smiling, laughing to mask feelings of helplessness, has such significance for my generation" (the artist cited in: 'Yue Minjun By Himself' in Exhibition Catalogue, Shenzen, He Xiangning Art Museum, Reproduction Icons: Yue Minjun Works, 2004-2006, 2006, p. 18).

 

This feeling of helplessness is brought to the fore in the present work, as the regimented line of eleven identically clothed, identically positioned figures recede into the distance of the night sky, an echo of the military displays and state-run rallies favoured by Mao to reinforce the might of the State. This composition was to prove seminally important in Yue Minjun's work, as the artist explains, "A major turning point occurred in a painting that featured a row of figures: the type of line-up so common in our communal experience of life. The appearance of conformity and abeyance, yet so often enacted without conviction of purpose. Here I chose to depict the same figure, similar stance, and same features, to highlight the inanity of such parades. To use one figure in such a manner lent them the appearance of caricatures: satirizing humanity to tell a particular story" (the artist cited in: 'Yue Minjun By Himself' in Exhibition Catalogue, Shenzen, He Xiangning Art Museum, Reproduction Icons: Yue Minjun Works, 2004-2006, 2006, p. 20).

 

An ironic response to the spiritual vacuum of modern China, the motif of the grinning face is a hyperbole of the smiling visages that populated propagandistic posters which, as a student at a state-run art school, Yue Minjun like the rest of his peers was trained to produce. Such art was expected to have a social function, designed to co-opt citizens into working for the common good of the State. Yet here it is used ironically to convey irreverent ambivalence as the only remaining defence against political oppression. As the title of the painting indicates, these are not the smiles of respectful, obedient citizens, nor is their orderly regiment a display of national pride or subservience to the State. Instead, these alarmingly inane grins belong to fools, the outcasts of society that the Cultural Revolution forgot. In numerology, the number eleven - the number of fools here depicted - represents impractical idealism, here symbolising the fatal flaw in Mao's short-sighted reform policies.  Each fool clasps his hands around his feet in an adopted foetal position, our most natural and animalistic defensive mechanism in times of undue stress. Like in the womb, they are isolated from this world by the surrounding darkness. The title of the work has strong Shakespearean connotations, the inclement night sky reminding us of King Lear who lost his sanity in the storm. Through pathetic fallacy, the storm symbolised both the destruction of the political state and the deterioration of his own mind. This lunacy has an important and specific precedent in Chinese artistic and literary culture as well. Known as the 'Popi' style, it is analogous to the stock motif of the intelligent fool in Shakespearean tragedy, where feigning madness to cope with political oppression became a way of salvaging one's self esteem. As the artist explains: "Scholars of past times could often only display helplessness when faced with social problems; most of them gave up. The act of giving up is profoundly human. It prevents conflicts with society and allows inner peace to be preserved. By giving up, one becomes carefree and detached. All problems can be resolved with a laugh, and disappear painlessly. In this way one attains an incomparable peace within" (Yue Minjun, 'A Few words Behind My Works' in Exhibition Catalogue,  Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, 2006, p. 138).

 

In Fools in the Night, the act of giving up itself becomes politicised, a means of passive resistance. "We laugh even when tragedy strikes, not because we are without sympathy, or empathy, but because we are profoundly conscious of human frailty and helplessness when confronted with adverse situations. How else to protect the soul from pain and suffering?" (The artist cited in: 'Yue Minjun By Himself' in Exhibition Catalogue, Shenzen, He Xiangning Art Museum, Reproduction Icons: Yue Minjun Works, 2004-2006, 2006, p. 16). In Fools in the Night, the soul, freefalling in space, is in its natural environment, removed from the world which we inhabit, the world of communes, persecution and seismic change. One of his most powerfully expressive works, here Yue Minjun brings the motif of the smile, with all its latent symbolism, to its apogee.