EXHIBITED:

Yue Minjun and the Symbolic Smile, Queens Museum of Art, New York, Oct. 14, 2007-Jan. 6, 2008

ILLUSTRATED:

Melissa Chiu, Chinese Contemporary Art 7 Things You Should Know, AW Asia, New York, 2008, color illustrated, p. 94

Yue Minjun started to create his "Contemporary Terracotta Warriors" sculpture series in 2000. The series is inspired by the terracotta warrior sculptures, which evoke great wonder, which were discovered in the area of the Qin Tombs in 1974 by a peasant from North Shaanxi. The warriors all look the same at first glance, but differences are apparent if they are observed carefully. They share the same reserved and aloof facial expressions. The Terracotta Warriors were a great discovery in China's field of sculpture art. Yue Minjun explores the balanced relationship between collective and individual through the ending of the history of feudal society. He overturns the new heroism and idolatry by creating groups of figures with uniform self-images, each with a laughing face and wide opened mouth.

Yue Minjun's terracotta warrior sculptures demonstrate a blend of historical implications and the potency of the self-image.  These figures are reminiscent of ideological aesthetics found in older Chinese art. Their exaggerated limbs and large heads give the sculptures a touch of modernity. These sculptures are made of bronze, and stand in an apex or circle formation. They represent a unified force, the power of the self-image, and the many contradictions that contemporary China faces as it continues to develop in the twenty-first century. Yue Minjun's work portrays his own likeness; figures and faces leering, laughing and enjoying life. Although Yue Minjun's characters are always smiling, they also convey a sense of irony.