What’s So Funny?: Behind the Wide Grins of Yue Minjun’s Art
China is one of the richest countries in terms of culture.
Historically, China has often been a centerpiece of political conversations, and a giant in establishing its immensely complex and varied elements of cultures, in particular gastronomy, traditions, destinations, and more. From philosophy to social media, this country has never ceased to enrapture the rest of the world with its innovations. Though its success is vast, its art in particular is something incredibly sought out.
Yue Minjun is an essential piece of this puzzle. Coined as the face of the Cynical Realism movement in China, Yue Minjun is a prized artist, and in that way, he is a cardinal figure for contemporary Chinese visual art.
Minjun was born in 1962 in the province of Heilongjiang to a family of oil workers. His early life was never set in place, as his family moved in order to find work, and Minjun himself later worked in the oil industry as well. Through his regular work days, he never stopped painting. It was the 1989 Tiananmen Square incidents that propelled him into giving his all for art: as the country experienced big changes, Yue Minjun also began a new chapter, as it was during the same year that he got inspired by Geng Jianyi’s oeuvre of the artist’s laughing face.
Yue Minjun is known for his surreal self-portraits of his own ecstatic grin, often depicted in a pinkish-red color. Painting, printing ad sculpting are all methods he practices, but though his iconic portrait style seems humorous, Minjun is pretty much the master of irony and subtle political commentary. It’s not just his consistency and imagination that appeals, but his storytelling and his expert use of expressions and body language. It holds the same rawness as an impossible performance: just, this time, it’s immortalized.
Currently based in Beijing, Yue Minjun is now one of the highest-grossing Chinese contemporary artists, and it’s no surprise. Though he doesn’t claim that he’s part of the Cynical Realism movement, he undoubtedly paved a new path for fine art.
About the Author:
Mizuki Khoury
Born in Montreal, based in Tokyo. Sabukaru’s senior writer and works as an artist under Exit Number Five.
