Zeng Fanzhi
Zeng's works have been praised as possessing an emotional directness, an intuitive psychological sense, and a carefully calibrated expressionistic technique.
Born and raised in Wuhan, Zeng was interested primarily in painting and drawing from a young age, and did poorly in school.
Moving to Beijing in the early 1990s, Zeng's art became a response to this immersion in what he viewed as a more superficial environment, with his seminal Mask series displaying the tensions between the artist's dominant existential concerns and the pomposity and posturing of his new contemporary urban life (which is depicted ironically).
That is, Zeng's representation of raw, exposed flesh or awkwardly oversized hands is not an attempt at pure emotional expression, but instead play against the superficially composed appearances of his subjects, an ironic treatment of emotional performance as a metaphor for a lost self, of stunted self-realization.
[5] Zeng was in Hubei Institute of Fine Arts from 1987 to 1991, and paid a particular interest in German expressionist painters.
[6] Romantic paintings, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, pop art and Chinese traditional painting have all influenced Zeng's art at different times in his career, but his work is most heavily influenced by his physical and emotional circumstances.
[6] The lighting on the paintings are not coming from an obvious source, and the characters seem to be separated from the world around them through an awkward placement in the background.
[6] The figures' hands are in fists and also much more realistic and apparent than in the past, and this causes them to seem as though they are controlling an emotion instead of venting anger, etc.
[6] The Mask series received wide acclaim from critics[9] and made him a multimillion dollar artist.
[6] What was once angry and bold has become more calm through different brush strokes, but there is still a sort of anxiety that can be noted by the fact that the characters have larger-than-normal heads.
[6] His Mask series ended in 2004,[8] and subsequent works show his study of traditional Chinese landscapes and calligraphy.
[11] These were followed by minimalist, black-and-white works etched on handmade paper and influenced by the art of the Song dynasty.
[15] In an effort to describe the rocky past, Zeng places an abstract version of chairman Mao over the building in Tiananmen Square.
[16] The bright reds and oranges show both an ironic sense of great courage over the top of an uncertain future.
[16] In May 2008, Christie's Hong Kong pioneered the Asian Contemporary Art Evening sale.
[7] Darryl Wee wrote that the 2011 exhibition of works by Zeng at the Gagosian Gallery's Hong Kong branch was the highlight, referring to Man and Meat (1993) as "a disquieting allegory of frenzied, winner-take-all capitalism in contemporary China.
"[20] In China Daily, Lin Qi reported that after the 2014 Louvre show, "Visitors were asked to comment on Zeng's work.
These shows, called "Zeng Fanzhi: In the Studio", were about his abstract paintings, his portraits, and the similarities between his Western-influenced and Eastern-influenced works, respectively.
