Description
B. 1966
SWEET LIFE NO. 21
70 1/4 by 67 1/2 in. 178.5 by 171.5 cm.
signed and titled in Chinese with three seals of the artist in Chinese: Zhu Wei Zhen Ji, Shi You Da Jiu, and Wan Yu Tang Jian Shang Zhu Wei Zhen Ji
ink and color on paper, mounted on silk and canvas
Executed in 1998.
PROVENANCE
Plum Blossoms Gallery, Hong Kong
Acquired by the present owner from the above
LITERATURE
Stephen McGuiness ed., Zhu Wei Diary, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 129, illustrated in color
NOTE
"Many people have asked me which foreign masters had influenced my creation. I can't say, for in fact there aren't any. However, Fan Kuan (Song Dynasty), Shi Tao (late Ming Dynasty) and Badashanren (early Qing Dynasty) have greatly influenced me. They are like my friends, my frames of reference, and objects that I want to challenge and surpass."υ[i]
Zhu Wei was born in Beijing in 1966 and joined the People's Liberation Army at age 16, where he was trained in traditional painting techniques at the PLA Art College (1985-89). Unlike many of his contemporaries, Zhu has remained devoted to traditional styles, seeking to perpetuate and expand native cultural traditions. Sotheby's spring sale offers a window onto Zhu Wei's technical, conceptual and stylistic development since 1995. Beginning with early series of the mid 90s, which juxtapose classical and modern elements, through his monumental sculpture of 2000, three-dimensional representations of his exaggerated caricatures, this section concludes with his most recent work. Lots 41 to 46 present a visual diary of Zhu Wei's practice, one that presents the artist's own experience yet speaks for the common man of contemporary China.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow (1995, Lot 42) bridges the gap between traditional China and modernity with an intriguing combination of dramatis personae. Traditional China is represented in the form of a scholar, who looks out of the image toward the viewer's left, while three iconic PLA soldiers march off this stage illuminated by streetlamps towards the right. As is characteristic of his early works, Zhu uses muddy colors to create the dreamlike atmosphere of this intriguing work - one that seems to reference the box-like perspectives of Western Renaissance painting and whose army men seem to have taken their military training from Jacques Louis-David's oath-taking Horatii brothers! But this mock seriousness is leavened by Zhu's characteristic wit: the Chinese characters on the building in the background at left read "Men's Bathroom," suggesting a commonality between past and present and that China's long history is, in fact, one of the common man.
An intimate evening scene in a close-cropped private interior is the subject of Beijing Time No. 3 (1995, Lot 43), a touching example from a series of a dozen ink and wash works conceived from 1995-96. Here, a pair of lovers stares longingly into space, apparently in anticipation of the military man's pending departure. Again the military hero is presented as individual, expressing the artist's view that all people experience similar feelings, in this case love, or perhaps longing. Typical of Zhu's works from this period are the expressive color language, small scale, and dense composition in which the figures are the central focus of the pictorial composition.
Sweet Life No. 21 (1998, Lot 41) is part of a slightly later series of portraits that depict a "fat-headed" figure that bears a striking resemblance to the artist himself. Growing up, Zhu Wei was often teased by classmates and reminded by his grandmother that his head was too big, so it is possible the series presents a form of self-portraiture. It is indeed a sweet image, as its title implies, setting the bald "fat head" in a lilac-colored Mao jacket against a watery background replete with small fish, two of which appear to gaze comically at the human figure as though he has invaded their aquarium. With pronounced references to traditional ink and wash painting and a beautiful, rhythmic application of color that indicates the waves of the water, Sweet Life is an exemplary expression of the light-hearted joy that often appears in the artist's work.
The version of Zhu's most celebrated sculptural series China China offered here (Lot 44) was executed from 1998-2000. A pair of faceless, larger-than-life, hand-painted fiberglass figures are positioned one after the other, as though preparing to kowtow in military formation. Han dynasty terracotta figurines were the source of inspiration for the China China series, of which editions also exist in bronze, in other sizes, and in upright position, as though standing at attention. The artist simulates the dusty, excavated surfaces of the original objects to create contemporary figures clad in the "Mao" Suit," their facial features effaced. The caricatured figures, imposing symbols of China's faceless masses, seem excavated from an archaeological site in the hinterlands of the Chinese psyche, where memories of the Qin Dynasty's grandeur and the Cultural Revolution's collectivism are equally present. As such they express the questioning stance regarding the past and the future that is so prevalent among artists of Zhu's generation.
In 2003, Zhu painted a small number of touching, portraits for his "Spring Herald" series, of which Spring Herald No. 1 and No. 3 (Lot 45) are offered together here. Tinged with pensive self-reflection, some of the figures in the series again border on self-portraiture; the subjects are imposing and contemplative, generally dominating the composition, while the works on the whole feature the appearance of traditional Chinese paintings, with areas of empty space and numerous seals of the artist (among which one is actually the artist's website). Meticulously rendered with warm, earthy colors, these intimate works suggest the fragility of humanity. The No. 3 is particularly telling in this respect: the bald figure seems to have traveled through time and space from a Renaissance profile portrait only to arrive amidst the SARS epidemic of 2003, during which time surgical masks of the kind the figure wears were common.
Inspired by the "hundred-boys-playing" motif on porcelain objects in his home, Zhu Wei began his most recent, ongoing series entitled Vernal Equinox in 2006, of which No. 3 (2006, Lot 46) is an example. The "hundred-boys-playing" motif is an auspicious symbol and central decorative element used in traditional Chinese works of art to wish for peace and harmony, a good harvest and prosperity for the country. The artist updates the ancient motif by transforming the imagery of playful and smiling rotund baby boys into ordinary modern-day men with serious expressions. Moving away from exaggerated portraiture towards miniature caricatures and more spacious compositions, Zhu Wei's "bubble-headed" figures float amongst strategically placed leaves and peonies, another traditional motif, creating an unconventional sense of balance and harmony in which the dense application of enlarged seals also play an important role. The combination of traditional motifs with contemporary imagery creates a bizarre, mysterious atmosphere yet continues to resonate with the formal and thematic interest Zhu Wei has long pursued.
"I paint my own world, my own experiences," the artist stated in 1996. "I was in the army for ten years. That was a big chunk of my life and naturally left a deep impression. But you only have to open your eyes on the street in Beijing, read the papers, watch TV, to see that I'm not painting anything that isn't there for those who choose to see it."υ[ii] Initially coming to prominence through the Plum Blossoms gallery in Hong Kong, it was not until 2006 that Zhu Wei held his first solo exhibition in China at Beijing's Red Gate Gallery. Now well recognized internationally, Zhu Wei's consistent interest in combining traditional methods and motifs with his unique take on contemporaneity suggests a fertile career in the future.
υ[i] "Art Needs Sedimentation: A conversation between Li Xiaoshan and Zhu Wei," August 2004.
υ[ii] Asian Art News, Volume 6, Number 5, September/October 1996.
