Wang Guangyi

Acquired by the present owner directly from the artist

This work is in a very good original condition. There appears to be some light soiling along the top edge of the painting, but it seems to be inherent to the working method of the artist. There is also a minor spot of paint loss in the far left corner edge of the painting. The work is framed and was not examined out of frame nor under UV light.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Wang Guangyi offers up a humorous critique of world affairs in his well-known "Great Criticism" series, featuring Cultural Revolution-era Communist ethos as sponsored by corporate powerhouses from around the globe. Wang repositions imagery of proud workers and stoic farmers—fists raised and often clutching Mao's Little Red Book—against vividly colored grounds and then tops off the painting with a brand logo culled from international haute couture fashion houses, media conglomerates or car manufacturers. Wang's works are often covered with sequences of numbers that might hint at barcodes or identity numbers, numeric systems that attempt to categorize the flow of things—here, perhaps, the selling power of the image as contemporary propaganda. Wang is deeply interested in exploring the binary of Western society and Socialist ideology, and through his deployment of imagery culled from the visual culture of both, he finds a powerful meeting point. Wang implicates himself in this equation, as his Pop-leaning paintings, based on the consumerism of the West and the politics of his native China, become objects of desire and high monetary value once released from his hand. The artist thus finds his own economic success and ideological ground rooted in the two disparate cultures to which he looks for inspiration. Wang Guangyi straddles these two worlds, much as anyone navigating contemporary Chinese society today is forced to do.

Wang's work Great Criticism Series: Cartier (1994, Lot 40) features two resolute workers in two-tone yellow, set against a ground of primary colors; one leans fist forward while the other raises a tool and grasps Mao's bible of Communist rhetoric and directions for good citizenship. The Cartier logo anchors the lower left upper portion of the canvas, and Wang's standard profusion of numbers—here 17283, there 95604—are arranged sporadically around the picture plane in black and white. As in all his works, Wang's painting examines the power of images in society, but in this painting there is a particularly ironic twist: Cartier luxury products are always presented in exquisite red leather boxes, but they are here supplanted by the Little Red Book, which urged the reader to abandon unnecessary excesses for the benefit of society at large. A work of the same title from 2003 (Lot 152) demonstrates the longevity and flexibility of the format in Wang's oeuvre.

In Great Criticism Series: Honda (also 1994, Lot 149), a mixed-sex pair of laborers is depicted in mustard yellow against red ground.  The man, with his welding goggles raised to his forehead, throws his fist into the air in a sign of solidarity; his companion proudly upholds the Little Red Book in her left hand. In addition to the omnipresent number sequences—here 965, there 4213—a striking Pop Art component hovers in the upper portion of the canvas, a cartoon bubble inscribed with the word "NO," in a manner similar to the Cartier painting. This phrase of refusal gives a powerful voice to these paintings, but we do not know if the figures intend to protest Communism, or more likely Western consumerism, a lurking menace represented by Japanese automaker Honda's corporate logo at the bottom of Lot 149. 

Wang takes on one of the great media empires of America in Great Criticism Series: Time Warner (2005, Lot 151). Here, four men are depicted in white against a deep red ground, with one holding a bulging sack on his shoulder. Interestingly, Wang rarely orders his number sequences as he does here with the arrangement 12345 and 67890; he paints out the logo for Time Warner in gray against black ground in the upper band of the painting. Although the sack held by the laborer is no doubt filled with grain or rice, here it seems as though it could be a bundle of information coming across the airwaves from abroad. Great Criticism Series: Universal (2003, Lot 150) pursues a similar theme, here with only one vocal worker, perhaps an out-of-work scene painter, protesting against the Hollywood machinery.  

In Eternal Halo No. 6 (2003, Lot 41), Wang moves away from brand logos and presents a group of laborers in monochrome, a burst of radiant energy exploding in the sky above them in black, blue and white. Two of the figures hold books in their hands—no longer red, but rather blank and black.  A shepherd's crook rises just over the heads of the group in the background, or perhaps it is a question mark barely rising to question the meaning of the collective's actions.  Whatever their appeal or rebellion, like all of Wang Guangyi's figures, they skillfully ride the wave of contemporary Chinese culture as it comes to terms with its history and future directions.

-Eric Shiner