The Origin of The Third Generation (II)
2011-11-08 10:28:55
The oil painting ¡°The Third Generation¡± is a joint work of He Duoling and me, actually He Duoling was the chief creator, I only painted a few of the figures. In the year of 1984 this painting was awarded with the Prize for an Art Work of Excellence at The 6th National Art Exhibition, the original title for the work was ¡°Our Generation¡±, later we thought this title would sound too ferocious, therefore we changed it to ¡°The Third Generation¡±. I now regret to have not squeezed myself in, it now seems to be a once in a life time opportunity.
HE DUOLING AIXUAN
THE THIRD GENERATION
Oil on Canvas
Executed in 1984
180 ¡Á 190 cm
Signed He Duoling, Aixuan and dated 1984
RMB: 14,000,000 ¡ª 18,000,000
At the time when we were painting ¡°The Third Generation¡±, I learnt the following through my personal experience: man cannot consistently keep a certain unique feeling in order to exist, rather there are manifold feelings, which under different conditions mutually change. At that time I had my vision and ideas, I painted many works based on my personal moodiness. But at the same time I felt there is a need for a kind of social responsibility, a need to pay close attention to life. The creation of ¡°The Third Generation¡± is paying attention to that one particular generation. This generation went through a lot of sufferings, it bears very deep marks of an era in which China underwent big changes. The figures in the painting are facing directly towardst the audience as if they were about to walk out of the painting. In the front we have the female poet Zhai Yongming, the architect Liu Jiakun, painters including Zhou Chunya, Zhang Xiaogang and others, they are all friends of us. As soon as we had finished the work, it found immediate response, each figure has a powerful charisma which holds the viewer spellbound, it shows a generation that constantly reflects upon themselves during a time of social transformation, a generation which bears the future of their nation.
Ai Xuan. 2006
