Xu Lei

executed in 2002
signed in Chinese

A private Asian collection.

Crossing: Contemporary Ink Styles, Tianjin Art Academy Museum, Tianjin, 2006.
Veneer of the World – Xu Lei, Today Art Museum, Beijing, 2013.
The Third Chinese Painting Biennale, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, 2014–2015 (A reproduction of the work was exhibited on this occasion).

Works by Distinguished Chinese Painters: Xu Lei, Hebei Education Publishing House, 2003, p. 78.
Zhu Zhu, Dui YingCong Shu: Kongchengji, Hebei Education Publishing House, 2005, p. 32.
Xu Lei, Art and Culture Publishing House, Beijing, 2013, p. 154.

Overall in good condition
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Renowned as an accomplished painter and connoisseur of the arts, Xu Lei adroitly incorporates Western Surrealism, Dutch Renaissance painting, nineteenth century photography and classical Chinese painting into his works. His meticulous gongbi style delivers thought-provoking responses to the fragmented legacy of the Chinese painting tradition, while evoking a sense of nostalgia in the face of the modern world. This painting is a part of the Empty Word series, which alludes to the loss of meaning for cultural motifs in the modern era. With the pagoda, an iconic image of China's architectural past, Xu Lei wittily flirts with an inner romanticism and post-modern anxiety as the viewer attempts to decode the rhetorical relationship between familiar yet estranged images.