Yue Minjun

each signed and titled in Chinese and dated 1992 on the reverse, framed

Private Collection, Asia

Chinese Artists of Today: Yue Minjun: The Lost Self, Hebei Education Press, Shijiazhuang, China, 2005, pp. 42 & 226
Collected Edition of Chinese Oil Painter Volume Of Yue Minjun, Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House, Chengdu, China, 2006, p. 10
Red: The Memory After The Cultural Revolution, Robert & Li Art Gallery, Tainan, Taiwan, p. 12

This work is generally in good condition with some very minor handling marks along the edges. Under ultraviolet light several areas around the top edge and on the lanterns have been restored. The hair on both figures have also been restored. All of the above are not very noticeable under natural light.
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Establishing Yue Minjun’s Style
Chinese Lanterns

Yue Minjun’s man with a smiling face has been an icon of his entire oeuvre, rarely seen in other artist’s works. Widely espoused by the media, the smiling man has become synonymous with the domain of Chinese contemporary art. It is only appropriate as such, since Yue Minjun’s infamous icon had materialised out of feelings of helplessness and disenchantment in the face of Chinese society. The public ennui towards a modernising nation, combined with the hyper-politicisation of daily life, gave rise to what pioneering art critic Li Xianting has coined the movement of Cynical Realism. Created in 1992, Chinese Lanterns (Lot 881) is one of the earliest works from the artist. This piece affirms Yue’s signatory style as it was the first to feature the artist’s own image and the repetitive scheme of the smiling icon, thus marking the importance of the painting.

Born in 1962 in Heilongjiang, Yue Minjun belongs to the third generation of artists after the Cultural Revolution. Since 1991, he began to work independently as a full-time artist in Beijing’s Yuanmingyuan artist village, in search of a direction for his artistic practice. From 1991 to 1992, his early works were mainly based on the portrayal of his friends, with the figurative approach differing from the cartoonish and repetitive style seen in the later works. On the Rostrum of Tiananmen from 1991 is the emblematic piece of this period, presenting four visually different Chinese youths wandering on top of the gate tower in Tiananmen Square, while one profusely laughs at what is to be outside of the canvas. Produced in the subsequent year, Chinese Lanterns contains similar elements as seen in On the Rostrum of Tiananmen, such as the presence of the Chinese lanterns, as well as the comparable use of colour and execution. However, the composition matter has already taken a great leap that would further influence his later works. Composed of two rectangular canvases, Chinese Lanterns is the first painting that not only features the artist himself as the protagonist, but also uses the repetitive smiling icon as its main theme. The smile seen in this early work in particular, illustrates Yue Minjun’s carefree, humorous, yet rowdy take on the ridicule of reality. It is after Chinese Lanterns did Yue start to replicate his self image and to line up rows of smiling faces in his works, both of which eventually formed as his signatory artistic style.

Li Xianting has pointed out that the repetition of smiling men configured in lines, was the artist’s attempt at mocking China as the economic machine. One that mass produces commodities and upholds consumerism, “using commercialism and his empty-headed characters to present the problem of a consumerism which has poisoned both Socialist ideals and the individual of our society. This seemingly arbitrary combination of consumerism and anti-individualism gives a cynical and humorous edge to his work.”¹ Clearly, the satirical tone and critical examination into one’s state of being, continues to be a consistent theme in the artist’s later works. Chinese Lanterns is of great historical importance, as it is through this work can we trace back to not only the first prototype of Yue’s iconic smiling face, but also the spiritual facade of Chinese people in the early 1990’s.

During the ’85 New Wave movement, came forward a group of Chinese idealistic artists who were inspired by modern ideas from the West to revitalise Chinese culture. For Yue’s generation, the Cynical Realism, their witness to the failure of the two previous generations raised fundamental questions for living. For Yue, he has chosen to express his view on life through the absurdity of the big smiling face, “the image of a laughing face was to me an assurance that things would get better: that a future life could be as rewarding and meaningful as the Buddha promised.”²

1 Faces Behind the Bamboo Curtain, Schoeni Art Gallery, 1994
2 Reproduction Icons: Yue Minjun Works, 2004-2006, He Xiangning Art Museum, 2006