PRINTPROVENANCE:
Private collection, USA
Private collection, USA
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Rouge Series, Mao
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2005 Acrylic on canvas 55.7 x 45.6 cm Signed on the reverse Li Shan in Chinese and English, dated 2005 |
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Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 508,000 - 763,000 15,500 - 23,200
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Sold Price
100,000 420,168 12,903
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Catalogue Note:
The present lot is a good representation of Li Shan's popular Rouge series (This title has been used from 1989 to 1993). The portrait of Mao in the most handsome period in Yan'an. Normally the use of Chairman Mao's image has a political association. The painting of the leader in a jesting and humorous way has also reminded us the Mao painted by Andy Warhol. The Artist means nothing political. Instead, he believes that the society has placed too heavy a responsibility on the shoulder of art; in his opinion, art is art itself. His painting of Comrade Mao's is only a comical reflection of history, to relieve the heavy burden of art and to say farewell to the history by using the once sacred object or image.
At the China Modern Art Exhibition held in 1989 at Beijing-National Art Museum, Li Shan became famous for his performance art Washing Feet. Prior to that, Li once participated in the planning and exhibition of "the First Shanghai Concave - Convex Exhibition" in 1986 and "the Second Shanghai Concave - Convex Exhibition - The Last Supper" in 1988. His Rouge series was recognized as an important symbol of Political Pop Art in the 1990s. The New Art from China: Post-1989, Venice Biennale in 1993, and Sao Paulo Art Biennial in Brazil in 1994 were the key exhibitions where Li Shan's Rouge series gain increasing influence. Different from Li Shan's own expression about his art, the art critic Lu Peng believes that Li Shan attempts to express his opposed political differences
by taking a stance of keeping away from the direct ideology and
political confrontation; he obscures his political view through using
metaphorical rhetoric. However, in the 1990s of China, within the
historical context of political pop art, Li Shan's explanation was
largely considered credible. The irony, metonymy, metaphor, jeer,
indication, and analogy, which originally belong in the category
of artistic rhetoric, were actually a political discourse and an
ideological stance. It is in this sense that Li Shan's art is an important
part of the political pop art. At a stage of historical transition, Li Shan
has sent out the last reminder, with his art, to those who are on the
brink of forgetting the history .
At the China Modern Art Exhibition held in 1989 at Beijing-National Art Museum, Li Shan became famous for his performance art Washing Feet. Prior to that, Li once participated in the planning and exhibition of "the First Shanghai Concave - Convex Exhibition" in 1986 and "the Second Shanghai Concave - Convex Exhibition - The Last Supper" in 1988. His Rouge series was recognized as an important symbol of Political Pop Art in the 1990s. The New Art from China: Post-1989, Venice Biennale in 1993, and Sao Paulo Art Biennial in Brazil in 1994 were the key exhibitions where Li Shan's Rouge series gain increasing influence. Different from Li Shan's own expression about his art, the art critic Lu Peng believes that Li Shan attempts to express his opposed political differences
by taking a stance of keeping away from the direct ideology and
political confrontation; he obscures his political view through using
metaphorical rhetoric. However, in the 1990s of China, within the
historical context of political pop art, Li Shan's explanation was
largely considered credible. The irony, metonymy, metaphor, jeer,
indication, and analogy, which originally belong in the category
of artistic rhetoric, were actually a political discourse and an
ideological stance. It is in this sense that Li Shan's art is an important
part of the political pop art. At a stage of historical transition, Li Shan
has sent out the last reminder, with his art, to those who are on the
brink of forgetting the history .