I/We: the Paintings of Zeng Fanzhi 1991-2003 gives an overview of Zeng Fanzhi's impressive body of works of the past 12 years. The show includes over 40 of Zeng Fanzhi's works, many borrowed back from private and public collections for this occasion.
The Paintings of Zeng Fanzhi at the Shanghai Art Museum
Opening Saturday, March 8th 2003, 4.00pm
With the opening of his solo exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum in March
2003, Zeng Fanzhi is only the third contemporary Chinese artist to enjoy the
privilege of a retrospective show in the Shanghai Art Museum.
"I/We: the Paintings of Zeng Fanzhi 1991-2003" gives an overview of Zeng
Fanzhi's impressive body of works of the past 12 years. The show includes over
40 of Zeng Fanzhi's works, many borrowed back from private and public
collections for this occasion.
The exhibition is not only a unique chance to review the work of one of the most
interesting young artists working in China today - Zeng Fanzhi is only 39 years
old -, but will also be a good opportunity for the public to get further
understanding of Chinese contemporary art through the work of one individual,
outstanding artists.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive catalogue with essays by
Robert Morgan, Li Xianting, Pi Li, Toshio Shimizu and Karen Smith.
Some history:
Zeng Fanzhi was born in 1964 in Wuhan, Hubei. In 1991 he graduated from Oil
Painting department, Hubei Academy of Fine Arts. After his first exhibition in
Wuhan got good reactions from critics in the capital, Zeng Fanzhi moved to
Beijing in 1992 as an independent artist. This was very rare at that period when
most artists were associated to a school or an other 'unit'.
In the last decade, Zeng Fanzhi' works were exhibited in a number of important
international exhibitions, such as China's New Art, Post-1989, (1992, Hong Kong
Art Center), Out of Middle Kingdom: Chinese Avant-Gardes Art (1995, Santa Monica
Arts Center, Barcelona), House of World Culture (1995, Berlin), Question Marks
(Singapore National Museum of Arts, 1997), Paris-Beijing (Espace Cardin, Paris,
2002) etc.
Since the middle-1990s, Zeng Fanzhi began again to exhibit more also in China
itself. His works were shown in different museums und galleries from Beijing,
to Shanghai, Guangzhou etc. Exhibitions include: 50 Years of Chinese Oil
Painting (1999, National Art Museum), New Images (2001, National Art Museum
Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Guangzhou Art Museum; Sichuan Art Museum,
Chengdu). Zeng Fanzhi held several solo exhibitions in Hong Kong, Shanghai and
Beijing.
The work:
Zeng Fanzhi likes to use the painting brush and the language of his brush work
is direct. The success of Zeng Fanzhi's works is closely related to his mature
expressionist style and the attention he pays to his subject, the young urban
people, people from his own generation, the generation of the 20something at the
beginning of Zeng Fanzhi's carrier to the 30something of today. You can follow
the dreams, anxieties, worries, wishes, the happiness, regrets and search for
identity of this generation in Zeng Fanzhi's work of the last 12 years. Zeng
Fanzhi gave this generation a face.
In his earlier works - when the artist was only in his late twenties - Zeng
Fanzhi dealt in very direct, expressionistic stile with the theme of death,
sickness and pain, creating very convincing image of people rather defenceless
exposed to the troubles of everyday's life.
After Zeng Fanzhi moved to Beijing, the mask became the most significant symbol
of his paintings. For the years to follow, Zeng Fanzhi painted his figures -
often depicted in front of simple, smooth backgrounds - with masks which try to
cover the face, but still didn't hide the feelings of his figures, their
emotions remained clearly expressed.
Zeng Fanzhi is driving his search for expression relentlessly forward and is
developing his style continously. The figures he started to paint in the past
years where without masks again, direkt portraits of people facing the life.
In his recent works, another transformation occurred. The directness of Zeng
Fanzhi's early works re-emerged. In addition to the normal bush strokes with
which he build the even larger faces, the artist began to cover the painting
with a second structure of quick, round lines. While they are destroying the
integrality of the image, they also provide it with a new sense of
dimensionality and urgency.
Just like any work of art, the works of Zeng Fanzhi will provoke different
reactions from different people. But what is sure, there is a clear line of
development in Zeng Fanzhi's work over the years, a development which is related
to the unprecedented urbanization and change of Chinese society which the
artists and his generation experienced in the last few years.
Image: Zeng Fanzhi (born 1964), Untitled, oil on canvas, 250x250cm, 2002
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at ShanghART in March 2003
- March 6-31, 2003: The Camels by Zhou Tiehai
Airbrushed works from Zhou Tiehai's studio.
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ShanghART
Feng Mengbo, Shanghai
Tel (86) 21- 6359 3923 or 5382 0418
Fax (86) 21- 63594570