PRINTILLUSTRATED:
Yan Pei-Ming: The Way of the Dragon, Les Presses Du Reel, Dijon, 2003, color illustrated, p. 168
Yan Pei-Ming: The Way of the Dragon, Les Presses Du Reel, Dijon, 2003, color illustrated, p. 168
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Victime Juliette C
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2001 Oil on canvas 200 x 180 cm Signed on the reverse YAN Pei Ming in English and Chinese, titled Victime Juliette C in English, dated October 2001 |
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Estimate
8,500,000 - 13,000,000 2,099,000 - 3,210,000 270,400 - 413,500
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Catalogue Note:
With eyebrows furrowed, eyes forcefully opened round and big, behind the glassy look on the young face are self-defense and fear. Hidden in her tightly-shut lips is a pain she could never tell others and bear with her tiny shoulders. The black spots scattered on the canvas seem like inconvenient noise which she could never get rid of, or scars which she could never avoid, a telling sign of the coldness and brutality of the world. “Victime Juliette C”, a black-and-white art work made by Yan Pei Ming, inspires us to contemplate all the considerations regarding survival, hurt, and the relation between human and history through his unique and powerful artistic language.
Born in Shanghai, Yan Pei Ming moved to Paris, France in 1980 and then relocated to Dijon, France in 1982, a get-away city where he has been devoted to art creation ever since. Around 1985, Yan restricted his compositions to black-and-white or red-and-white schemes. Based on the extremely limited palette of colors, he further became renowned for his epic-sized, monochromatic portraits of Mao Zedong. Since then, black-and-white or red-and-white huge portraits has been his unique artistic signature. He often uses large brushes to dip the paints he prepares in boxes to create his large, sparing strokes on the large-scale canvas strenuously by moving up and down the ladder. With layers and layers of oil paints carefully revised after several observations in the distance, a majestic and breathtaking portrait is then created.
Rough but delicate, the fast strokes evoke the sense of exact volume and distance merely from the figures formed in the mono-chromatic scheme. Yan’s paintings always directly impact his spectators’ senses and further arouse their inner emotions. It is by simplifying his selection of hues that the artist can concentrate the visual power. Despite the challenges associated with using a limited palette, Yan steadily mastered the use of minimal color and hue, a technique which quickly became one of his most widely recognized traits. As Yan put it, “I’ve always been very comfortable using black and white. For me it’s a very sufficient palette to express what I want to say. And for me it’s become a very direct way of painting, using black and white.” (Charles Schultz, YAN PEI-MING with Charles Schultz, June 4th, 2012, The Brooklyn Rail). His works have been exhibited in La Biennale di Venezia and International Istanbul Biennial. In 2009, Yan became the first living contemporary artist to have his solo exhibition “The Funeral of Mona Lisa” shown at the Louvre.
As one of the most common forms of art in history, portraits have a long history and rich meaning in Eastern and Western cultures. From religious figures, saints, wise men, royal members, family members, celebrities, to common people, portraits not only display their subjects’ appearances, but also their social status, their personality traits, and even their historical context and the contemporary social atmosphere. Portraits, as an old art form, were severely challenged when photography was invented in the 19th century. However, Yan promotes portraits to a new level in the formed-based contemporary art circle with his cross-national and cross-racial insight to the human nature. Amazed at the relation between a person and his or her historical context, he spent more time on the choice and composition of subject matters and then on the fast strokes on canvas. Yan has not only painted portraits of Mao Zedong, Bruce Lee, former President of France Jacques Rene Chirac, his father, but also common people, especially the suffering ones. “Victime Juliette C” is an especially classic and representative piece. Yan’s large-scale oil paintings, like patches of photographs and memory, display personal traits of famous figure who influence the human history and fact and their historical context.
Unlike Yan’s portraits of celebrities, the young girl depicted in “Victime Juliette C” in 2001 is far from member of the authorities; rather, she is a vulnerable member of the disadvantaged. However, with the serene contract of black and white on the canvas, the artist uses powerful but delicately tragic strokes to illustrate her face, displaying the suffering, self-esteem, courage, and hope of the tiny soul in this Monument-like large-scale art creation.
Born in Shanghai, Yan Pei Ming moved to Paris, France in 1980 and then relocated to Dijon, France in 1982, a get-away city where he has been devoted to art creation ever since. Around 1985, Yan restricted his compositions to black-and-white or red-and-white schemes. Based on the extremely limited palette of colors, he further became renowned for his epic-sized, monochromatic portraits of Mao Zedong. Since then, black-and-white or red-and-white huge portraits has been his unique artistic signature. He often uses large brushes to dip the paints he prepares in boxes to create his large, sparing strokes on the large-scale canvas strenuously by moving up and down the ladder. With layers and layers of oil paints carefully revised after several observations in the distance, a majestic and breathtaking portrait is then created.
Rough but delicate, the fast strokes evoke the sense of exact volume and distance merely from the figures formed in the mono-chromatic scheme. Yan’s paintings always directly impact his spectators’ senses and further arouse their inner emotions. It is by simplifying his selection of hues that the artist can concentrate the visual power. Despite the challenges associated with using a limited palette, Yan steadily mastered the use of minimal color and hue, a technique which quickly became one of his most widely recognized traits. As Yan put it, “I’ve always been very comfortable using black and white. For me it’s a very sufficient palette to express what I want to say. And for me it’s become a very direct way of painting, using black and white.” (Charles Schultz, YAN PEI-MING with Charles Schultz, June 4th, 2012, The Brooklyn Rail). His works have been exhibited in La Biennale di Venezia and International Istanbul Biennial. In 2009, Yan became the first living contemporary artist to have his solo exhibition “The Funeral of Mona Lisa” shown at the Louvre.
As one of the most common forms of art in history, portraits have a long history and rich meaning in Eastern and Western cultures. From religious figures, saints, wise men, royal members, family members, celebrities, to common people, portraits not only display their subjects’ appearances, but also their social status, their personality traits, and even their historical context and the contemporary social atmosphere. Portraits, as an old art form, were severely challenged when photography was invented in the 19th century. However, Yan promotes portraits to a new level in the formed-based contemporary art circle with his cross-national and cross-racial insight to the human nature. Amazed at the relation between a person and his or her historical context, he spent more time on the choice and composition of subject matters and then on the fast strokes on canvas. Yan has not only painted portraits of Mao Zedong, Bruce Lee, former President of France Jacques Rene Chirac, his father, but also common people, especially the suffering ones. “Victime Juliette C” is an especially classic and representative piece. Yan’s large-scale oil paintings, like patches of photographs and memory, display personal traits of famous figure who influence the human history and fact and their historical context.
Unlike Yan’s portraits of celebrities, the young girl depicted in “Victime Juliette C” in 2001 is far from member of the authorities; rather, she is a vulnerable member of the disadvantaged. However, with the serene contract of black and white on the canvas, the artist uses powerful but delicately tragic strokes to illustrate her face, displaying the suffering, self-esteem, courage, and hope of the tiny soul in this Monument-like large-scale art creation.