ZENG FANZHI | Untitled 08-4-6

Acquavella Galleries, New York
Private Collection, New York
Sotheby's, New York, 11 November 2015, Lot 56
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner 

New York, Acquavella Galleries, Zeng Fanzhi, April - May 2009, cat. no. 24, illustrated in color

This work is in excellent condition. There is scattered dust throughout. The small areas of canvas visible at the extreme edges are an inherent result of the composition and not instances of loss. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there are certain pinpoint spots that fluoresce but are not the result of restoration. Unframed.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Brimming with frenetic vibrancy compounded by a climactic sense of movement, Zeng Fanzhi’s impressively sized painting Untitled 08-4-6 is a complex net of visual amalgamations that creates an almost vertiginous sense of space and velocity. The electrifying tension of thin white branches and dark black trunks is set against a mysterious, all-encompassing dark blue background that is punctuated by passages of neon light. Entangled in a complex infrastructure of light and dark, the viewer becomes part of a phantasmagorical composition that extends laterally beyond the work’s surface. Deeply embedded in the tumultuous experience of contemporary life, the present work is a firm departure from Fanzhi’s celebrated Meat and Mask series into the realm of landscape painting in which the transition between figuration and abstraction progressively blurs. In these works, Zeng offers a unique blending of his idiosyncratic intuition for color reminiscent of German Expressionist painting and his astute sense of history devolving the rich past of Chinese landscape painting into a powerful contemporary vision. To create the enthralling contrast of thick impasto brushstrokes with fine, delicate lines, Zeng adopted a technique of his own by using two brushes simultaneously—a technical choice which reveals a growing confidence in his own intuition and skill. A large brush conceives the background with expressive strokes while a thinner brush composes the breached tree branches. Zeng’s development of scouring and scraping his works, using a palette knife to drag and extend wet paint, gives the work a frantic, energetic nature, successfully capturing the vivacity of the vines. Evolving from the metaphoric and symbolic qualities of his figurative works, the landscape paintings herald Zeng’s new technical freedom and display a vibrating energy. The automatic flow of his brushstrokes unleashes an aesthetic expression that is akin to the automatic drawings of the Surrealists who engaged with the idea of the subconscious to create new images and forms. The profusion of paint dispersed across the picture plane recalls the influence of Jackson Pollock, who himself was influenced by the Surrealist’s concept of “psychic automatism,” while the ethereal color composition evokes the fantastical and dream-like aura in Peter Doig’s works.

Positioned at the very forefront of Chinese contemporary art, Zeng has created one of the most fascinating and compelling bodies of work over the last 25 years. Growing up amidst the Cultural Revolution and hyperactive propaganda of the Maoist regime, Zeng rose to fame with the depiction of carnal bodies in hospitals and figures with masked faces. The more fluid and vigorous landscape paintings mark a clear departure from these figurative works. While his early oeuvre reveals the influence of Western art history such as German Expressionism, the landscape series enters into a fascinating visual and intellectual dialogue with the past that is explored through Zeng’s novel vernacular. By depicting elements that are emblematic of historical Chinese landscape painting such as the overlap of detailed representation with abstract qualities of materiality, Zeng set aside the Western techniques that so prominently defined his figurative works from the 1990s and started to embrace Eastern influences at the beginning of the millennium. The present work in particular combines many important elements of Chinese landscape painting from the Tang and Song Dynasty. While the Tang Dynasty was dominated by an exploration of monochromism versus polychromism as well as scrutinizing the significance of line and texture, the Song Dynasty was best known for its preoccupation with landscape at large and its connection to the human condition. By aptly manipulating the oil paint with fingers and brushstrokes, Zeng not only demonstrates his absolute mastery of technique but creates undulating lines of immediate expressiveness and lyrical power that echo the historical relevance of landscape painting.

Translating his cultural heritage into the present-time, Zeng formulated a universal idiom reflective of the increasing speed of modern urban life juxtaposed with a nostalgic longing for pure nature that culminates in a dark and mysterious, almost apocalyptic vision. As art historian Richard Schiff writes in his essay accompanying Zeng’s major retrospective at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 2013, “rather than solving a problem, creativity stimulates more creativity” (Richard Schiff, “A line knows” in Exh. Cat., Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Zeng Fanzhi, 2013, p. 205). In this sense, the natural flow of the lines in the present work creates new dichotomies of revealing and concealing, representing and abstracting, displaying more ambiguity than providing definite solutions.