Author: 毛焰
Size: 230*150cm
Signed and dated: Dated 1996
Estimate:
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LITERATURE：20th Century Chinese Oil Painting III-2， p.484， Beijing Publishing House， Aug.2001； Chinese Contemporary Fine Arts Illustrated 1979-1999， p.93， Hubei Education Press， Sep. 2001； 96·97 the 1st Contemporary Art Academic Exhibition， p.61， Lingnan Fine Arts Press， Dec.1996； Celebration 97 HongKong’s return， Chinese Contemporary Oil Painting Exhibition， p.8； Artist， p.236， 301st Issue， Taiwan.
signed in Pinyin and dated 1996
EXHIBITED：96， 97 the 1st Contemporary Art Academic Exhibition， HongKong， 1996-1997
Mao Yan is well-known for his strange portraits， which are delicate yet hard to be understood. When he was an undergraduate student in the Central Academy of Fine Arts， he was outstanding for his sensitiveness and his fantastic imagination. While most Chinese contemporary artists intend to question the society with their art works， Mao Yan is among the few who are willing to spend their time at refining their art languages.
Some critics think that Mao Yan’s portraits are too harsh too be accepted. It seems that Mao Yan wants to express all of the coldness and nervousness of this world on the face of his protagonists. This kind of effect comes from Mao Yan’s special understanding of painting. Most of his paintings are dominated by bright grey. He tries to create delicate transitions between different colors within the domination of grey. Moreover， Mao Yan has reduced the sense of space and obscured the border between figure and background so that the human figure could melt gradually with the background. It is the reason that Mao Yan’s paintings look so confusing as if what he has painted are not human figures but ghosts.
The Mao Yan， Memory or the Dancing Black Rose is dominated by bright blue-grey. It depicts a young man who wears a black shirt. The man stretches his arms out as if he wants to fly or to dance. He is so slim that it seems that he is floating in the air rather than standing on the earth. The expression on his face is so strange that he looks like a dreamer， who has isolated himself from the world. He does not care about the world， nor does the world have anything to do with him. He is self-contained and would not be limited by the material world. The title of the painting has told his states symbolically. When people dwell in “Memory”or“Dancing”， they are isolated. They live in the memory of past or the world of imagination and forget the reality totally. In both case， they are self-contained. The young man does not care about critiques from others. What are important to him are his dreams. This is the characteristic of Mao Yan’s protagonists. And this is also the characteristic of Mao Yan himself.
