Warhol and Mao
Oct 2 - Dec 4, 2010
A Solo Exhibition of Paintings by Zeng Fanzhi
Fabien Fryns Fine Art
October 2 – December 4, 2010
Opening: Saturday, October 2, 2010, 5-7 p.m.
(Los Angeles – August 2010) Fabien Fryns Fine Art in Los Angeles will present an exhibition of works by Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi. The exhibition – consisting of 2 “Warhol” and 3 “Mao” portraits – is the artist’s, one of Chinese contemporary art’s brightest stars, first solo show on the West Coast. The exhibition opens on October 2, 2010, from 5 to 7p.m. and ends on December 4, 2010. This exhibition coincides with the launch of the new monograph “Zeng Fanzhi” published by Hatje Cantz which includes a foreword by Fabien Fryns and a text by Dr Richard Shiff.
The natural inclination with an exhibition like this is to make comparisons between Zeng Fanzhi and Warhol. In Warhol’s “Mao” prints (as in his “Marilyn Monroe” and his own self portrait prints), his candied repackaging of global pop icons not only serves to monumentalize his subjects—more importantly, it establishes and propagates brand Warhol itself. Not Andy Warhol as an individual or as an artist, but Warhol as a globally traded commodity.
Zeng Fanzhi’s “Mao” and “Warhol” portraits operate on the opposite end of the scale. Where Warhol’s work existed for the public arena and played heavily with motifs of mechanical reproduction, Zeng Fanzhi’s work is very much a private affair. There is a distinctly personal quality to each of the artist’s frenetic, gestural strokes. As with his earlier portraiture work and even the mask paintings for which the artist is most widely recognized, Zeng Fanzhi’s “Mao” and “Warhol” paintings possess an intimacy that the artist Andy Warhol never achieved—a one-on-one engagement between artist and subject, artwork and viewer. Painting with two or more brushes simultaneously, Zeng Fanzhi uses one brush to describe his subjects while he lets others meander across the canvas. The technique transforms each work into near abstraction to render his iconic subjects partially indiscernible, consequentially reapportioning their celebrity and re-humanizing their larger-than-life status.
Despite Zeng Fanzhi’s own similar stature in international art – in 2008 he set an auction record for Asian contemporary art with his "Mask Series 1996 No. 6" which sold for US $9.7 million, through Christie’s, Hong Kong – the artist seemingly seeks not to trade upon the currency of his success. Instead he looms as the proverbial outsider peering in. Within each painting is an attempt to initiate a cultural dialogue between the East and West, and within each painting is Zeng Fanzhi’s characteristic philosophical playfulness—one in which he expresses an interest in (and perhaps even a tacit reconciliation with) the foundations of his own ascendancy in contemporary art.
Zeng graduated in 1991 from Hubei Academy of Fine Arts. His early paintings are immediately recognizable by their signature expressionistic strokes, that lend provocative sensations of underlying violence and agony to his lavishly rendered canvases.
Upon moving to Beijing, he began his celebrated Mask series in 1994. Later he painted a series of portraits of friends and colleagues to reveal psychological human conditions and inner personalities.
The focus of Zeng Fanzhi’s works has shifted in recent years from depicting the people in a fast-changing society to exploring the mind landscapes of human beings, whereby their experience of existence in society is revealed in both philosophical and aesthetic terms.
沃霍与毛
曾梵志绘画个展
弗羽森画廊
10月2 － 12月4， 2010
开幕：星期六，10月2， 晚5－7点
(洛杉矶,2010.9)弗羽森画廊将展出中国艺术家曾梵志的作品。 这次展览，包括两件沃霍和三件毛泽东肖像，是这位中国当代艺术明星的首次西海岸展览。展览开幕式10月2日晚5点到7点，于12月4日结束。此次展览正巧赶上由 Hatje Cantz出版的《曾梵志》一书的发行。此书由弗羽森撰写前言，Richard Shiff博士撰写评论。
这样的一个展览让人自然而然地把曾梵志和沃霍比较。在沃霍画的毛的肖像时，（就象他的梦露或他的自画像）他的糖果色的重新塑造的世界流行人物的形象不但神话了他的主题，更重要地是巩固了和宣传了沃霍这一个品牌。沃霍不是一个个人或一个单独的艺术家，而是一个世界通销的产品。
曾梵志的毛和沃霍肖像却是另外一种效果。沃霍的作品是为大众而创作的，强调机械化再生产的符号，曾梵志的作品却是完全为艺术家个人而创作。每一个疯狂而有动作性的笔触都带有强烈的个人色彩。正如他早期的人像作品，甚至是他广为人知的面具系列，曾梵志的毛和沃霍肖像具有沃霍作品没有达到的亲近感：一种艺术家和其题材之间的以及作品和观众之间的一对一的感觉。同时用几只笔一起画，曾梵志用一枝笔形容他的题材，另一些笔打乱画面。这种技法使作品几乎抽象，使得偶像的形象朦胧不清，其结果是动摇了他们的明星形象，使这些大于生命的形象人性化了。
尽管曾梵志自己在国际艺术市场上有着类似偶像地位： 他1996年的面具第6号在CHRISTIE’S 的2008年香港拍卖以9百70万创下亚洲当代艺术的拍卖纪录，但艺术家似乎并不想以个人的成功来炫耀于市场。他似乎更愿意作一个引人昭著的旁观者从外向里观望。每一幅画都试图建立东西方文化的对话，每一幅画都渗透着曾梵志的典型的哲理幽默：其中之一是他表露出对自己对中国当代艺术的影响的基础的兴趣（或许也有认同的成分）。
曾梵志于1991年从湖北艺术学院毕业。他早期的作品因为具有代表性的表现主义的笔触而著名。那些表现主义的笔触给予他丰富的画面一种带有暴力和痛苦色彩的兴奋。
1994年迁移到北京后，他开始创作深受欢迎的面具系列。之后，他画了许多朋友和同事的肖像以揭露人的心理状况和内心世界。
近几年曾梵志的作品从反映人们在一个快速发展的社会转变到探讨人类的思维景界，从哲学上和美学上揭开人们在社会里的存在。
Fabien Fryns Fine Art
October 2 – December 4, 2010
Opening: Saturday, October 2, 2010, 5-7 p.m.
(Los Angeles – August 2010) Fabien Fryns Fine Art in Los Angeles will present an exhibition of works by Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi. The exhibition – consisting of 2 “Warhol” and 3 “Mao” portraits – is the artist’s, one of Chinese contemporary art’s brightest stars, first solo show on the West Coast. The exhibition opens on October 2, 2010, from 5 to 7p.m. and ends on December 4, 2010. This exhibition coincides with the launch of the new monograph “Zeng Fanzhi” published by Hatje Cantz which includes a foreword by Fabien Fryns and a text by Dr Richard Shiff.
The natural inclination with an exhibition like this is to make comparisons between Zeng Fanzhi and Warhol. In Warhol’s “Mao” prints (as in his “Marilyn Monroe” and his own self portrait prints), his candied repackaging of global pop icons not only serves to monumentalize his subjects—more importantly, it establishes and propagates brand Warhol itself. Not Andy Warhol as an individual or as an artist, but Warhol as a globally traded commodity.
Zeng Fanzhi’s “Mao” and “Warhol” portraits operate on the opposite end of the scale. Where Warhol’s work existed for the public arena and played heavily with motifs of mechanical reproduction, Zeng Fanzhi’s work is very much a private affair. There is a distinctly personal quality to each of the artist’s frenetic, gestural strokes. As with his earlier portraiture work and even the mask paintings for which the artist is most widely recognized, Zeng Fanzhi’s “Mao” and “Warhol” paintings possess an intimacy that the artist Andy Warhol never achieved—a one-on-one engagement between artist and subject, artwork and viewer. Painting with two or more brushes simultaneously, Zeng Fanzhi uses one brush to describe his subjects while he lets others meander across the canvas. The technique transforms each work into near abstraction to render his iconic subjects partially indiscernible, consequentially reapportioning their celebrity and re-humanizing their larger-than-life status.
Despite Zeng Fanzhi’s own similar stature in international art – in 2008 he set an auction record for Asian contemporary art with his "Mask Series 1996 No. 6" which sold for US $9.7 million, through Christie’s, Hong Kong – the artist seemingly seeks not to trade upon the currency of his success. Instead he looms as the proverbial outsider peering in. Within each painting is an attempt to initiate a cultural dialogue between the East and West, and within each painting is Zeng Fanzhi’s characteristic philosophical playfulness—one in which he expresses an interest in (and perhaps even a tacit reconciliation with) the foundations of his own ascendancy in contemporary art.
Zeng graduated in 1991 from Hubei Academy of Fine Arts. His early paintings are immediately recognizable by their signature expressionistic strokes, that lend provocative sensations of underlying violence and agony to his lavishly rendered canvases.
Upon moving to Beijing, he began his celebrated Mask series in 1994. Later he painted a series of portraits of friends and colleagues to reveal psychological human conditions and inner personalities.
The focus of Zeng Fanzhi’s works has shifted in recent years from depicting the people in a fast-changing society to exploring the mind landscapes of human beings, whereby their experience of existence in society is revealed in both philosophical and aesthetic terms.
沃霍与毛
曾梵志绘画个展
弗羽森画廊
10月2 － 12月4， 2010
开幕：星期六，10月2， 晚5－7点
(洛杉矶,2010.9)弗羽森画廊将展出中国艺术家曾梵志的作品。 这次展览，包括两件沃霍和三件毛泽东肖像，是这位中国当代艺术明星的首次西海岸展览。展览开幕式10月2日晚5点到7点，于12月4日结束。此次展览正巧赶上由 Hatje Cantz出版的《曾梵志》一书的发行。此书由弗羽森撰写前言，Richard Shiff博士撰写评论。
这样的一个展览让人自然而然地把曾梵志和沃霍比较。在沃霍画的毛的肖像时，（就象他的梦露或他的自画像）他的糖果色的重新塑造的世界流行人物的形象不但神话了他的主题，更重要地是巩固了和宣传了沃霍这一个品牌。沃霍不是一个个人或一个单独的艺术家，而是一个世界通销的产品。
曾梵志的毛和沃霍肖像却是另外一种效果。沃霍的作品是为大众而创作的，强调机械化再生产的符号，曾梵志的作品却是完全为艺术家个人而创作。每一个疯狂而有动作性的笔触都带有强烈的个人色彩。正如他早期的人像作品，甚至是他广为人知的面具系列，曾梵志的毛和沃霍肖像具有沃霍作品没有达到的亲近感：一种艺术家和其题材之间的以及作品和观众之间的一对一的感觉。同时用几只笔一起画，曾梵志用一枝笔形容他的题材，另一些笔打乱画面。这种技法使作品几乎抽象，使得偶像的形象朦胧不清，其结果是动摇了他们的明星形象，使这些大于生命的形象人性化了。
尽管曾梵志自己在国际艺术市场上有着类似偶像地位： 他1996年的面具第6号在CHRISTIE’S 的2008年香港拍卖以9百70万创下亚洲当代艺术的拍卖纪录，但艺术家似乎并不想以个人的成功来炫耀于市场。他似乎更愿意作一个引人昭著的旁观者从外向里观望。每一幅画都试图建立东西方文化的对话，每一幅画都渗透着曾梵志的典型的哲理幽默：其中之一是他表露出对自己对中国当代艺术的影响的基础的兴趣（或许也有认同的成分）。
曾梵志于1991年从湖北艺术学院毕业。他早期的作品因为具有代表性的表现主义的笔触而著名。那些表现主义的笔触给予他丰富的画面一种带有暴力和痛苦色彩的兴奋。
1994年迁移到北京后，他开始创作深受欢迎的面具系列。之后，他画了许多朋友和同事的肖像以揭露人的心理状况和内心世界。
近几年曾梵志的作品从反映人们在一个快速发展的社会转变到探讨人类的思维景界，从哲学上和美学上揭开人们在社会里的存在。