拍品描述：
款识：yueminjun 2005 （右下）；岳敏君 2005年 （画背）
“People I draw are laughing out, laughing out loud, laughing at each other, laughing violently, laughing at death, and laughing at society. It seems like every ingredient is there. To laugh is to refuse to think, that the mind feels unable to think about something, or that it is difficult to think, and that it needs to get rid of it.”
— Yue Minjun
With his eyes tightly shut and a grin of perfect, toothpaste-white teeth, Yue Minjun’s signature laughing face is one of the foremost icons of Chinese Cynical Realism in the 1990s. The artist grew up amid social turbulence, experienced the subsequent opening up of culture, and ultimately fell under the banality of contemporary life. Through his art, he has keenly explored ways to reconcile the absurdity of his age against a broader historical context. Since the 1990s, he has developed a self-satirical and self-deprecating approach that repeatedly engages and playfully subverts his own image into an exaggerated laughing face, through which he aims to uncover the ambivalence of living within the particularities of contemporary Chinese society.
“The choice of hat is never something that can be done sloppily. Hats are an expression of our personal image, our style.”
— Yue Minjun
Created in 2005, the current lot Hat belongs to a later series created since 2004, in which Yue explores themes related to individual positions within the complex social system. The painting showcases the artist’s unique visuality that simultaneously draws on and overturns the convention of Realism, deconstructed with a tilted sense of black humour. With a bold frontal view, the composition highlights the drama in the exaggerated expression of the protagonist, which is enlarged to dominate the canvas. An alter ego for the artist who is fundamentally pessimistic, the imagery is imbued with profound tension in multiple degrees. One one layer, the laughing face becomes a tactic for individuals to insert or imagine themselves within the changing social climate, caught between roaring economic growth and gloomy political realities. On another, it speaks of a mindless kitsch of the new era flourishing with new values and morals. Ultimately simmering under the surface is a sense of boredom following the collapse of grand historical narratives, whether about ideals or misery, hope or social scars.
The focal point of the series, the hat atop the protagonist’s head is closely examined by Yue in terms of its symbolism. The motif, in the artist’s eye, serves not only as an indicator of individual personality but also as a reflection of the various roles one plays in social and political life. Building on this idea, the series showcases an intriguing array of different social characters, ranging from military soldiers, merchants, workers, to Olympic champions. All these figures are ironically homogenised through Yue Minjun’s stylised repetition, reinterpreted with the same laughing face. The individual ego of the protagonist is further dissolved, as Yue flattens the depth of the painting with a light and glossy colouring that is reminiscent of propaganda posters and commercial advertisements. In this way, Yue Minjun further transports the meaning of his laughing man from self-mockery to a critical lens that is socially engaged. Beneath the cynical mask of laughter lies a profound concern for past traumas and a constant engagement with the contemporary psyche.
来源:
美国私人收藏
北京，苏富比，2013年12月1日，拍品编号118
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油彩 画布
创作年代:
2005年作