Fang Lijun

signed in Chinese and titled in English; signed in Chinese, titled in English and dated 1993.10 on the reverse, executed 1993-1994

Private Collection, Europe

Brazil, São Paulo, São Paulo Biennial, 1994, p.59 

Chinese Artists of Today: Fang Lijun, Hebei Education Press, Shijiazhuang, China, 2006, p. 408
Live Like a Wild Dog: 1963-2008 Archival Documentation of Fang Lijun, Vision Art, Taipei, Taiwan, 2009, p. 228
Fang Lijun, Culture and Art Publishing House, Beijing, China, 2010, p. 262

This work is generally in good condition. Having examined the work under ultraviolet light, there appears to be no evidence of restoration.
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Beyond the Current
Fang Lijun

“Water is uncertain, like human feelings. Sometimes it is comforting, sometimes scary. You can’t live without water and need water, but too much water will drown you.”

In the early 1990s, together with Liu Wei, Fang Lijun was hailed as the leading figure of Cynical Realism by influential art critic Li Xianting. Aside from the bald head figure that first gained him global recognition, the water and the swimmer motif stemming from the late 1980s and 1991 respectively can be considered to be a core part of Fang Lijun’s oeuvre throughout the 1990s. Probably unbeknownst to Fang at the time, they would also be one of the most fundamental symbols that brilliantly capture the paradoxical spirit of the Chinese population
during a period of economic and political reform in the new era, bearing an omnipresent influence on the young generations of Chinese artists. For Fang himself, the two symbols in reality represent something much more than a national memory. Rather, they are his main vehicles to reflect on the state of human existence. Exhibited at the 22nd International Biennial of São Paulo, one of the earliest international exhibitions to showcase contemporary Chinese art, the exceptional 1994 No. 6 (Lot 60) belongs to one of the first body of works to portray a lone baldheaded figure swimming in the ocean, and represents a crucial experimental phase within Fang’s early career.

The bald head image, as seen in this lot, was first created in 1988 and considered by many as a break away from the 85’ New Wave Movement. Suggesting boredom and mischief in life, as well as self-mockery for the artist, it was the perfect image to capture the ethos of the
early 1990s. “I noticed that although a shaved head on its own is very striking, its individuality disappears in a group of shaved heads. I found the idea very compelling that an individual person’s feeling of being omitted and ignored in society is especially strong in our culture.”¹
This theme of collective homogeneity would ultimately gain Fang Lijun early recognition from curators in China and abroad at the 1993 Venice Biennale. Throughout the years, his conscious experimentation on new motifs to represent the essence of life in contemporary China has further set him apart from the rest of his peers, making him one of the most important artists in contemporary Chinese art history.

Graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts in the printmaking department, the young Fang Lijun was already determined to use oil painting as his main device in expressing his thoughts and concerns. Though he initially refrained from the depiction of water due to technical problems, one can certainly see a mastery of skill in 1994 No. 6, through a renewed experimentation on the rendering of water and its interaction with the human figure. In the writing for the exhibition, curator Johnson Chang specifically mentioned that unlike other
artists’ works, Fang’s paintings uncannily treat water as a timeless, directionless threat to one’s survival, and essentially reveals man’s own powerless feeling behind the act of floating. This “powerless” feeling precisely encapsulates the mentality of the Chinese generation
after the political turmoil in 1989, and is fully exemplified in 1994 No.6. Produced in the end of 1993, the lot on offer is especially precious as it highlights a critical period of self-reflection for the artist after his return from the Venice Biennale and “Post 89 New China Art” exhibition
in 1993. A baldheaded figure is seen swimming in the ocean on his back, with his arms near his sides. His apathetic face gasps for air while his legs kick profusely under water, creating a current of billows and ripples from right to left. It is one of the first works to present a single figure against the vast blue water, delineating and heightening the impact of the bald head and water motif. At the same time, the gaudy flowers that populated his works in 1993 have disappeared completely, leaving the viewer to quietly focus and ponder upon the man in the center. This featureless man can be said to be a self-portrait of Fang himself and ultimately a portrayal of humanity, and would remain as the artist’s most concerned subject throughout his entire oeuvre.

While many critics have attributed the swimmer motif to the 1966 event with Mao Zedong swimming across the Yangtze in Wuhan, for Fang, it lies much deeper beyond a mere political perspective. In many different interviews, Fang has mentioned the similarity between human and water. “I believe that human nature is not bound by standards and rules, contrary to our past proclamations about its goodness or evilness. I would like to convey and provoke debate about this understanding through painting. Human nature is the same as a leather ball—kick it and you cannot predict where it will roll. Water is very close to my understanding of human nature. Water is liquid, not rule-bound. When you look at it, it changes. Sometimes you think it is very beautiful, very comfortable, but sometimes you think it is terrifying.”² The ambivalent relationship between the two especially captivates the artist, “Water is uncertain, like human feelings. Sometimes it is comforting, sometimes scary. You can’t live without water and need water, but too much water will drown you.”³ Throughout his oeuvre, the aesthetics of the water motif has seen significant transitions, from the monochromatic paintings in 1993 to the Sunlight series in 1997; among all these different works, 1994 No. 6 is considered to be of great importance as it traces back to the artist’s first bold attempt in completely revealing the raw relationship between human and water. Indeed, the indeterminacy and malleability of water, and ultimately life, are skillfully showcased in the technique and composition of 1994 No. 6, making the work an exceptional and rare testament to Fang’s exploration in the survival of humanity under the grand flux of time.