Past Idol
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2006 Oil on canvas 150 x 200 cm Signed lower right Ren Si Hong in English and dated 2006 |
Estimate
340,000 - 460,000 81,000 - 110,000 10,400 - 14,100
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Sold Price
354,000 85,652 10,953
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Artists from the 90's represented Mao Tsetung in different times through different ways, although almost none of them have ever seen Mao in person, but everyone one of them have different images and thoughts of that hero, therefore there are "one hundred Mao Zedongs inside one hundred artists". Mao remains to be a mystery in 21st century, and this leaves artists plenty of room for their imagination. Mao's influences remains even the Cultural Revolution is over. Ren always combine sculptures and oil paintings to display Mao "in action" in a humorous way. His memories for that revolution are derived at the end of the event, The image of Mao appeared in his works as a Formalism symbol, and Ren used it to instinctively present reality and the experiences from the history, as well as visual experiences that can be easily accept by public in the era of consumer culture.
In his "Past Idol", there's a pink cubby lady holding a Mao Zedong sculpture running gracefully with smile on her face, that smile is recollectable. Ren used this kind of mocking language to resent the great of his country in his picture, adapting "Gaudy Art" methods to connect the great ones also reflects pop culture and the memories of the history, also is a kind of sarcasm and criticism to the history.