ILLUSTRATED:
Reproduction Icons: Yue Minjun Works 2004-2006, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2006, color illustrated, pp. 96-97

HAT SERIES
YUE MINJUN

People often associate Yue Minjun’s bold, ironic narratives with cynicism and humor. However, upon careful observation of his artworks, behind the exaggerated laughter, those simple, succinct, almost propaganda-like styles, signs and symbols in fact reflect the cruel realities of contemporary Chinese society. The artist seems to be engaged in a project of idol making, but the endless revisions and repetitive interpretations have the reverse effect of making the artworks a form of anti-idolization. The cartoonish image of a face with tightly shut eyes and ridiculous grin does not need to convey changes in expression. The bright pink complexion and shining white teeth resembling those of a toothpaste commercial appear simplified, programmatic, propagandistic, easily rooted in the minds of unsuspecting people. Yue’s laughing figures have become one of the most important symbols of contemporary Chinese art. The artist’s work reflects his interactions with the world. According to Yue, the process of creating each collection is similar to script-writing where one must delineate the outlines of a story using inspirations that arise from his framework of thoughts and emotions.

To Yue, a young man who just entered college back then, 1985 was a turning point in both his personal life and artistic career. Chinese art was during that period undergoing a series of violent cultural collisions: traditional vs. modern, rural vs. urban, local vs. foreign, the collective vs. the individual. The turbulence in the contemporary Chinese art circle gave rise to the highly significant 85 Art Movement. The dual impacts of transformations in social thought and artistic trends greatly influenced Yue’s later works. To Yue and his contemporaries, the only way to resolve such social absurdities was to gamble recklessly with humor and irony as they fully explored and assessed existing styles and content in the search of new, previously unknown art forms. These artists were once forced to paint propaganda posters, which made them exceptionally grateful and exalted for the way they were later able to stand by their original intents and forms of representation as they attempted to reveal the cynical realism of a world filled with anxiety, anger and confusion.

This collection is indeed Yue’s representative masterpiece in his adoption of techniques derived from Pop art, cartoons, propaganda graphics and commercials. Zeng Fanzhi exerted his creativity with masks, while Yue exhibited his with the use of deeply ironic laughing self-portraits that convey how free and independent individuals are treated as rebels. Yue said he was inspired by the movies, by how actors play various roles within them yet still retain their own identities. Marilyn Monroe was an iconic example. Icons convey certain kinds of information, a concept that inspired Yue to utilize the idea of exaggerated self-portraits as a tool for mocking both individuals and the ills of society. His image of a wide face, grinning mouth lined with rows of shining white teeth and tightly shut eyes has become the symbol of the contemporary era. In this world of meaninglessness, cruelty and absurdity, a self-reflective smile is indeed all we are capable of.

Yue began to work on his Hat Series since 2004 in an attempt to explore how people’s identities and roles within society may be differently perceived. He said, I began to be interested in hats with the advent of the 2004 Athens Olympics. The variously shaped hats were made from different kinds of olive leaves in their representation of different medals. I began to wonder, when did people begin to wear 'hats?' How did this everyday accessory become the symbol of work and social status? A symbol of nationality and ethnicity? Today, except for certain common occupations, such as construction works, police officers, soldiers and nurses, no form of associations or groups still forces people to wear hats. In my absurd interpretation, I established a set of social codes and etiquettes that designate which hats should be worn by which people to highlight the powerful influence and meaning of hats within different nationalities and groups. Yue purposefully utilized the works in this series to create abrasions and collisions with his previous creations, so that his works remain in a state of indeterminacy and allow him to seek further possibilities in creative methods. The art of painting has always been submitted to a passive, receptive role. It has never been a vessel of active bestowment; it always awaited the artist to give it color, image and composition. This, to some extent, is the representation of introspection and self-contemplation.

The Hat Series shows the mindlessness and barrenness of contemporary people’s thoughts. Yue borrowed heavily from traditional culture in the shaping of many of his art works, but was at the same time engaging in the reinterpretation and reflection of contemporary trends. The figures in this work have no defining characteristics, implying an entire generation disgusted with regulations and the observation of rules. In this painting two social roles are distinguished by two distinctive occupations. A group of three people stand with their backs to the viewer. The one showing his face with its tightly shut eyes and toothy grin is obviously the symbol of a collective mindset, one that also exhibits the existing extremities and contradictions of the path to modernization. The artist perfectly portrays the irony of power and its worship. The absurdity of the exaggerated laugh is also the reason why his works continue to hold strong social and political significance. Although the artist employs bright pink tones, the whole painting still appears to be chilling and cold. In the painting, the figures are laughing, yet their viewers only feel a sense of inexplicable sadness. The effect is the culmination of his simplistic artistic style and precise but effective power of implication. The Hat Series also indicates that people, in order to survive in society, have to play various roles and even hide their true selves when necessary. Choice of hat is something that has ever been done at will. A hat is an expression of our self-image and personal style. Yue humorously adds that people should think carefully when choosing a hat for themselves and never wear the wrong hat (a Chinese idiom that means being labeled as something you are really not). To allow the artwork to incite a variety of reactions, that is the true mark of a great artist.