2007 Evening Sales: Yue Minjun, Untitled
2007-05-07 11:40:56
When Yue Minjun started his career as an artist, he encountered the historical turning point of Chinese contemporary art. Logically, the talented artist became an important figure in Chinese contemporary art soon. Yue Minjun is one of the representatives of Cynical Realism and is well-known internationally for his laughing figures. These laughing figures imply the emptiness and indifference of modern souls. As modern society develops rapidly, traditional faiths are no longer respected while people had not yet find a new one. We are under the reign of emptiness now. The situation is horrible especially because people are blind to it. The Untitled depicts such a laughing man. The man wears a white T shirt and is laughing under the shadow of dark sky. We do not know what he is laughing at. But we could easily discern the contrast between his stupid laugh and the meaningful darkness of the sky. He is blind to this fact because he could hardly find anything important in his life so that he chooses to empty his life with an empty laugh. Here lies the charm of Yue Minjun¡¯s art works: he never tells, but just implies.