The China Project

117 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection FANG Lijun Fang Lijun is one of the most prominent painters of a generation of artists who propelled the cynical realist movement to the forefront of Chinese contemporary art in the 1990s. Its associated term, ‘rogue humour’, appropriately describes his work. 1 During the Cultural Revolution, Fang’s family was classified as rich peasants, and many attacks and denunciations were directed at his grandfather. This childhood experience made an indelible impact on Fang, and his paintings draw directly on his experiences of this decade; being victimised as a member of the ‘wrong class’ instilled in him a deep sense of cynicism about ideology. 980810 1998 (the title refers to the painting’s year, month and day of completion) is a large, dramatic work dominated by the figure of a man with a shaved head, with brightly coloured roses, chrysanthemums and oleander blossoms floating across the surface of the painting. The man is bright red — the colour associated with China’s communist revolution — and his yawning mouth hovers above the tiny waving and grinning figures below. The floating blossoms have no stems or roots, but are full of symbolism from the past, recalling Mao Zedong’s famous dictum, ‘Let a hundred flowers blossom. Let a hundred schools of thought contend’. The background might be a sea, rolling and rising with the motion of the swell, or a sky that appears crushed and creased. For Fang, the individual is ultimately a lone figure, morally disempowered and forced to act out false gestures. The artist relates an incident in which he was compelled to weep in public at the news of Mao’s death, for which his peers praised him. This sense of facade is translated into the multitude of smiling faces that feature in 980810 , and Fang’s own participation is encapsulated in the self-portrait implied by the bald central figure. Fang shaves his head, which in China is ‘a sign of individuality but is also associated with the lout, the rogue, or some negative character’. 2 While the painting is highly coloured and playful, it also belies the realities of daily life in China post 1989. By using himself as the subject of his painting, Fang’s cynicism is directed at himself as much as the community at large. His critique plays with self-parody, just as in his childhood he played with the same children who participated in the denunciations against his family. The contradictory combination of high-key colour and grinning figures — suggesting the artificiality of communal celebration — and a central character that is both bored thug and self-interested artist, characterises Fang’s paintings and offers complex levels of meaning. endnotes 1 When translated from the Chinese, the word ‘cynicism’ is intrinsic to the meaning of the phrase ‘rogue humour’. 2 Li Xianting, ‘Fang Lijun and Cynical Realism’, in Fang Lijun: Human Images in an Uncertain Age , [exhibition catalogue], The Japan Foundation Asia Centre, Tokyo, 1996, p.85. 980810 1998 Oil on canvas / 250 x 360cm / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2000 with funds from The Myer Foundation, a project of the Sidney Myer Centenary Celebration 1899–1999, through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation