Wang Jinsong

WANG JINSONG (China, 1963).
"Hurdle Race", 2005.
Acrylic and gouache on Xuan paper (rice paper).
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
This work was part of a solo exhibition of the artist held at the gallery Dolores de la Sierra in Madrid (2007).
Measurements: 111 x 205 cm; 120 x 212 cm (frame).

Wang Jinsong is one of the most notable Chinese artists within the pictorial movement critical of the social reality of his country, the so-called "Cynical Realism". It is a rabidly contemporary movement and at the same time rooted in traditional Chinese brush painting.

The painting shown here shows his technical and stylistic versatility, which moves freely from photographic realism to expressionism, and from oil painting to painting on rice paper, a traditional Chinese support that he recovers in this "Obstacle Race". Knowing the political charge of many of his works, the "Obstacle Course" that the artist seems to place here on a watery and unstable ground, transcends the theme itself and is impregnated with metaphorical meaning. The competitiveness and aggressiveness to which modern life throws us is probably the underlying message. But regardless of the meaning, the staging of the athletic bodies that, with their momentum, shatter all barriers in their path, is imbued with great expressive power.

Wang Jinsong has been one of the most notable Chinese artistic personalities within the movement critical of the social reality of his country, the so-called "Cynical Realism". It is a rabidly contemporary movement and at the same time rooted in traditional Chinese brush painting. He is also a photographer. His 1999 photographic project "One Hundred Signs of the Demolition" is part of the photography collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was with his works "A Joyful Sunday" (1987) and "Trimming the Branches" (1988) that he broke with the traditional Zhepai school, and they were later published in Fine Art magazine by Gao Minglu, a seminal figure of the 1985 New Wave movement. After witnessing the Tiananmen incident in 1989, Wang began to question idealism and think more about politics, which influenced his "Grand" series of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In his large-scale photo montages, videos, oil on canvas and paintings on rice paper, the artist examines the fundamental applications of contemporary Chinese society - addressing issues such as birth control, the fate of the elderly, the mass demolition of old buildings in big cities and the disgruntled cultural relationship of a modern China to its glorious past.

His works extensively exhibited in China, Japan, Australia, Europe and the United States can be seen in various museums including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany, the Museum, Fukuoka, Japan, and the International Center of Photography, New York, USA.