PROVENANCE: The Estella Collection

ILLUSTRATED:
Yang Shaobin, Essence of Violence, Hebei Education Press, Hebei, 2006, color illustrated, p. 135
Yang Shaobin, Xin Dong Cheng Publishing House, Paris, 2007, color illustrated, p. 168

Yang Shaobin, who like Fang Lijun was a member of the ‘Cynical Realist’ movement, first came to prominence in the Chinese art scene in the early 1990s. In Yang’s Cynical Realist paintings from this period, one can already detect the interest in themes relating to violence that runs throughout Yang’s work. This concern with violence derives partly from Yang’s own personal experience, and partly from his engagement with society and the wider world. By the late 1990s, Yang’s art had undergone a thorough transformation and maturation, leading to the creation of the “Red” series, which made him one of the most internationally-renowned contemporary Chinese artists.

Using bold brushstrokes, the painting depicts a human figure whose protruding, flabby flesh is being beaten back and forth; the drip effect that Yang has employed with the paint intensifies the sense of violence. The feeling of immediacy and speed, and the emotional state reflected by the work, are chaotic, viscous, and blurred. The distinctive non-realism of the work strikes the soul of the viewer with powerful effect. Strength of will and the weakness of the flesh are two of the most important themes in Yang Shaobin’s art. “Red No. 2” was part of the Estella Collection, which was generally considered to be one of the richest and most important collections of contemporary Chinese art, including outstanding works by leading and upand- coming Chinese contemporary artists, and which effectively documented the changes in subject matter and style in Chinese art in recent years. The inclusion of Yang Shaobin’s “Red No. 2” in the Estella Collection can fairly be said to have added extra luster to the collection.