Wang Guangyi Little Criticism: Fruit 1992 Oil on canvas. 59 x 38 3/8 in. (149.9 x 97.5 cm). Signed and dated “1992 Wang Guang Yi [in English and Chinese]” on the reverse.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Literature G. Wang, Wang Guangyi, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 113 (illustrated); Wang Guangyi, Art Collecting, Volume 1, Beijing, 2002, p. 14 (illustrated) and 113; K. Smith, Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China, Zurich, 2005, p. 37-38 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay The immediate precursor to the Great Criticism series, the humorously titled Little Criticism series consists of Wang’s model workers surrounded by childlike renderings of fruit and their English spellings. Little Criticism: Fruit presents four model soldiers in typical Socialist propaganda style, including a scholar, a painter, and a worker, painted in bold primary hues. The speech bubble questions, tentatively, in English: “Wang Guangyi was born in 1956 in Harbin?” and “Mr. Wang is one of the most important artisit (sic) in Contemporary Art Movements in China?” A few words are crossed out, as if the artist was unsure of either the question or the facts presented. The piece is an ironic, self-referential vignette, reflecting both the artist’s self-directed cynicism and his early use of socialist propaganda imagery as a red flag for fundamental “truths.” Read More
Wang Guangyi Little Criticism: Fruit 1992 Oil on canvas. 59 x 38 3/8 in. (149.9 x 97.5 cm). Signed and dated “1992 Wang Guang Yi [in English and Chinese]” on the reverse.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Literature G. Wang, Wang Guangyi, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 113 (illustrated); Wang Guangyi, Art Collecting, Volume 1, Beijing, 2002, p. 14 (illustrated) and 113; K. Smith, Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China, Zurich, 2005, p. 37-38 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay The immediate precursor to the Great Criticism series, the humorously titled Little Criticism series consists of Wang’s model workers surrounded by childlike renderings of fruit and their English spellings. Little Criticism: Fruit presents four model soldiers in typical Socialist propaganda style, including a scholar, a painter, and a worker, painted in bold primary hues. The speech bubble questions, tentatively, in English: “Wang Guangyi was born in 1956 in Harbin?” and “Mr. Wang is one of the most important artisit (sic) in Contemporary Art Movements in China?” A few words are crossed out, as if the artist was unsure of either the question or the facts presented. The piece is an ironic, self-referential vignette, reflecting both the artist’s self-directed cynicism and his early use of socialist propaganda imagery as a red flag for fundamental “truths.” Read More
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
