Yan Pei-Ming

Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milan
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is brighter and more vibrant. The illustration fails to fully convey the rich texture and the metallic silver and gold qualities of the paint in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. The canvas is slightly slack. There is minor rubbing along the extreme lower left corner edge. No restoration is apparent under ultra-violet 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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."

Towering three metres in height, Ming's Silver Bruce Lee is the only image of the Kung-Fu icon ever to appear at auction. Foremost in his pantheon of subjects, Bruce Lee best exemplifies the power of Ming's portraiture. Drawn towards figureheads of religion, media and politics, Ming is fascinated by men who enthuse the masses and control them. While his images of Chairman Mao and the Pope depict the Great Helmsman of the Cultural Revolution in the East and the Spiritual Pastor of the West, it is arguably the figure of Bruce Lee who best bridges the gulf between East and West, Ming's native Shanghai and adopted home in Dijon, France. An icon of Hong Kong and Hollywood cinema, Bruce Lee brought a new level of popularity and acclaim to the Kung-Fu genre, sparking the first major surge in interest in martial arts in the West. In China he is seen as a cultural ambassador, revered by the masses for his portrayal of national pride and Chinese nationalism in his movies.

 

Immortalised by his films on the silver screen, Bruce Lee is here immortalised by Ming in great swathes of magma-like silver paint. Ming always works in a restricted palette, usually in black and white or red and white with a few tonal gradations. But in Silver Bruce Lee he uses two different metallic paints - silver and gold - so that the oversized bust portrait emerges from a shimmering, reflective expanse. Dressed in the white, sleeveless vest worn by the martial arts legend in his 1972 film Way of the Dragon, Lee is depicted in a moment of stasis which does little to conceal his latent strength. Filling the entire height and width of the canvas, Ming enlarges the shoulders to emphasise his infamous physical strength. For Ming, the eyes are the key to successful portraiture, "For me the portrait is about the soul, about humanity... through the eyes you can see the person behind" (the artist cited in Exhibition Catalogue, Mannheim, Kunsthalle, Yan Pei-Ming: The Way of the Dragon, 2005, pp. 101-2). Here the eyes look askance to the left, not directly at the viewer, and carry a latent threat as if Lee, having spotted a potential threat, is poised ready to strike.

 

Working on such a monumental scale, Ming has developed his own particular painterly voice. Painting quickly and using stepladders and giant-sized brushes to cover the canvas, he moves fluidly from one area of the canvas to the next working up both figure and ground at the same time, often painting wet-in-wet. Using photographs and stored visual memories as his source images, he is freed from rote representation and afforded greater expressivity. As his images arise from an organic, instinctual process, Ming does not paint something but gives rise to it. Trowelled thickly in assured, confident brushstrokes, the familiar features of the sitter here emerge from the metallic sheen of the pigments, which lend this work a particularly sculptural quality. Working frenetically and spontaneously, his fervid, energetic technique recalls that of the Abstract Expressionist action and gestural painters. Ming counts among his greatest influences the abstract compositions of Willem de Kooning. In Ming's hands the traditional genre of portraiture, conventionally a representational mode of painting, opens itself up to the explicitly formal concerns of painting. Living in France for the last twenty years at a time when painting has experienced a demise, Ming has staunchly resisted conceptual art and new media. His insistence on the importance of oil painting and his continual innovation have reinvigorated and rejuvenated the traditional genre of portraiture.