Cai Guo-Qiang

signed in Pinyin, titled in Chinese and English and dated 2005, framed

Private Chinese Collection

This work is generally in good condition. 
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One of the most influential artists internationally in the contemporary Chinese art world, Cai Guo-Qiang has exhibited globally over the past two decades. His works have appeared in almost every major international art fair as well as renowned museums such as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern in London and Centre Pompidou in Paris, which have acquired his works among their permanent collections. Thanks to invitations by governments and institutions worldwide, Cai has transported the pyrotechnics of Chinese traditions to the rest of the world through the medium of art, instilling within it a dazzling new life energy. In 2008, a major retrospective was held at the Guggenheim in New York. Praised by Newsweek as “explosive and dazzling”, the exhibition set a new record for visitors’ numbers in the museum’s history. It was also its first solo exhibition ever held by a Chinese artist.

Explosives constitute one of Cai Guo-Qiang’s iconic creative media. Before he completes a large-format installation work, he often creates a gunpowder drawing specific to the piece. The present piece, Wolves of the Dark Night: Drawing Experiment for Deutsche Guggenheim, is a gunpowder drawing made especially for his iconic 2006 work Head On. The other associated gunpowder drawing as well as the installation work are now in the Deutsche Bank Collection. Exhibited in leading art museums for many times, Head On is a distinguished example of his art installation pieces: an arc of 99 wolves appears to be leaping head on to a glass wall. It is not that their behaviours do not follow conventional logic, but they lack in better judgement. Upon closer inspection, the sheer focus and ferocity come across even more prominently. Particularly thought-provoking is the primitive mind-set of complete and unquestioning dedication towards one’s own demise. In Wolves of the Dark Night: Drawing Experiment for Deutsche Guggenheim, the image of a wild wolf fiercely charging forward is revealed on the charred surface left by explosions and burnt gunpowder. The unusual medium of gunpowder, whose roots can be traced to ancient China and Chinese culture, portrays the motion of the running wolf, whose image is barely perceivable. The spirited vitality of this drawing closely resembles that of Chinese ink paintings. On the drawing, the explosion and obliteration of life’s great passion are vividly portrayed, ready to leap into reality.