Lot n° 39
Estimation :
600 - 800
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 640EUR
TIANBING LI (1974)
Chinese still life, n°22, 2002
Oil on canvas, signed, titled and dated 2002 on the back.
55 x 46 cm
TIANBING LI (1974)
Born in Guilin, China, Li Tianbing studied at the Institute of International Relations in Beijing before graduating in 2002 from the École supérieure nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
When Li Tianbing moved to Paris in 1996 to study art at the École des Beaux-Arts, he continued to deepen his identity, travelling back and forth to his home country to better grasp it through separation. Fusing the two cultures, the artist incorporates traditional Chinese motifs into Western forms of interpretation. On the one hand, the colour blue symbolizing capitalism, shades of black based on Taoist philosophy, the use of text as another layer of meaning; on the other hand, the practice of self-portraiture, the use of oil on canvas, the importance of photography as a starting point and the integration of colour. The consequences of the one-child policy, the conception of the family as well as the reflection on contemporary Chinese society remain central in Li Tianbing's work. These paintings are part of a semi-biographical series that occupied Li for most of five years. They are an artist's attempt to rediscover and re-imagine what he can about his own childhood and to explore the human consequences of perhaps the most controversial and ambitious social policy China has enacted: the one-child policy. Li Tianbing explores fiction and reality haunted by childhood memories chosen from a stifling society and a charged political framework.
Using photography as a medium to illustrate her reflections on the past and her multicultural experiences, Li superimposes the present using oil painting in a timeless duality. Reflections on loneliness are symbolically addressed throughout Li's art, reflecting her suffering instilled by the politics of the only child. This state of confusion engulfs the artist and he loses the boundary between his own authenticity and his invention.
The interpretation of his work integrates personal identity and drama into a tale with the infiltration of multicultural factors. His composition weaves the contrasting themes of today's China: East and West, communism and capitalism, ancient culture and modern consumerism. A recurring fixity and absence is found in the children's eyes: no expression can be read. Breaking with the autobiographical pact based on absolute transparency with the viewer or reader, Li Tianbing seems to build an impassable sanctuary of intimacy, feelings and memories. The context in which the children evolve is almost more suggestive than the characters, as if they exist without being, present without participating. The children are depicted in the monochrome details of an old photograph, some splashed with blue, red or green, others clutching toys, books or bags of abnormal brightness. Eyes wide open, hopeless, they seem detached, like children. And above all - although each photo may contain several children - they seem lonely.
Now considered one of the most critically acclaimed artists of Chinese origin of his generation, Li has participated in a selection of exhibitions: Today Art Museum, Beijing; Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai; National Museum of Fine Arts, Beijing, China and Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Spain. The artist lives and works both in Beijing and Paris, France.
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