Paintings by Wang Guangyi

Paintings by Wang Guangyi

Wang Guangyi was born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in 1956. In 1984, he graduated from the oil painting department of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. He currently lives and works in Beijing, China. Guangyi is known for being the leader of the new art movement that erupted in China after 1989, and for his series of paintings which use images of propaganda from the Cultural Revolution and contemporary brand names from western advertising, entitled Great Criticism.

Though Wang Guangyi’s work has erroneously been associated with Chinese Political Pop, in reality one of the main themes of his art can be found in its relationship to the transcendent. Juxtaposing revolutionary images with consumer logos, Wang’s canvases provocate with their duplicitous message, highlighting the conflict between China’s political past and commercialised present. Stylistically merging the government enforced aesthetic of agitprop with the kitsch sensibility of American pop, Guangyi’s work adopts the cold-war language of the 60s to ironically examine the contemporary polemics of globalisation.

Through his critique, Guangyi’s paintings weave intricate narratives, implicating the role of the artist as an active participant (both as subjugator and subservient) in economic and social policy. Guangyi treads a very delicate line between moral dictum and capitalist endorsement; the interpretation of his paintings alternates with the subjectivity of context. Amalgamating, confusing, and blurring opposing ideological beliefs, Guangyi’s billboard sized canvases readily sell out national valour, while simultaneously devaluing status symbol luxury for the proletariat cause.