Zeng Fanzhi
Zeng Fanzhi ( Chinese 曾 梵志 , Pinyin Zēng Fànzhì ; * 1964 in Wuhan , People's Republic of China ) is a contemporary Chinese painter. He lives and works in Beijing .
life and work
Zeng Fanzhi, born in Wuhan in 1964, is considered one of the most important contemporary Chinese artists. He studied at the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 1991.
Like many Chinese artists of his generation, his work is heavily influenced by his youth during the Cultural Revolution. Together with artists of the same age as Yue Minjun , Wang Guangyi and Fang Lijun , Zeng is part of an art movement that is known as cynical realism or political pop .
He is best known for his mask series, which was created between 1994 and 2000. In these pictures, the faces of the sitters are hidden behind stylized masks, this is understood as an indication of the difference between the inner nature of man and the metaphorical mask that faces the world.
His works regularly fetch high prices at auctions, for example one of his works in Hong Kong in 2006 fetched 6.8 million euros, which at the time was a record for a contemporary Chinese work of art. In 2013, the painting “The Last Supper” (a painting inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper ) also fetched 180.4 million HKD (around 17 million euros) at auction in Hong Kong , the current record for a contemporary Asian work.
Important exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
- Singapore Art Museum (2007)
- Musée d'art Moderne de Saint-Etienne de Metropole, Saint-Etienne, France (2007)
- Fundacion Godia, Barcelona, Spain (2009)
- National Gallery for Foreign Art, Sofia, Bulgaria (2010)
- Rockbund Art Museum , Shanghai, China (2010)
- François Pinault Foundation, Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2011)
- Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2013)
- Ullens Center for Contemporary Art , Beijing (2016)
Participation
- Guangzhou Triennial (2002)
- Biennale di Venezia (2009)
literature
- Every Mark it's Mask , Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7757-2532-3 .
- Zeng Fanzhi , Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China 2010, ISBN 978-7-5394-3792-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Profile of Zeng Fanzhi on gagosian.com, accessed February 26, 2012
- ↑ a b Profile of Zeng Fanzhi on artchina-gallery.de, accessed on February 26, 2012, accessed on February 26, 2012
- ↑ zeit.de: "Cynical Realism" from January 31, 2007, accessed on February 26, 2012
- ↑ ["Globalizing Art Markets"] by Sarah Khan, accessed via Google books on February 26, 2012
- ↑ handelsblatt.com: "Chinese art is very popular" from April 4, 2011, accessed on February 26, 2012.
- ↑ Press release on sothebys.com: [1]
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zeng Fanzhi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 曾 梵志 (Chinese); Zēng Fànzhì (Pinyin Romanization) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Chinese painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1964 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wuhan , China |