Yue Minjun

Private Collection, Europe
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

"The flood of kungfu films that have recently received so much attention in the West inspired [Free and At Leisure - 8]...the original Chinese name for kungfu means 'classical gymnastic ballet'. Traditionally, [kungfu] is less about fighting than about engaging in an athletic dance in which grace and agility determine the superior master, not the ability to demonstrate physical prowess and damage one's opponent. Many of the original moves were derived from observations of the motion and gestures of animals and birds, for whom such skills were applied to self-preservation, not conscious aggression. Through time this dance was reconfigured as a fighting art...because it represented to the Chinese people a source of national strength and power. Today, against the pre-eminent power of the glamour of action films and on-screen violence, the essence of kungfu has been distorted. I decided to make a parody of the animal and bird postures that originally inspired the 'dance'. The contortions to which I subject the figures highlights how far the art has come from the innocence of its roots."    

The artist cited in Exhibition Catalogue, Shenzhen, He Xiangning Art Museum, Reproduction Icons: Yue Minjun Works, 2004-2006, 2006, p. 22