FANG Lijun
(China 1963– )
- Title
- Pencil drawing No. 3
- Place of origin
-
China
- Year
- 1988
- Media category
- Drawing
- Materials used
- pencil on paper
- Dimensions
-
54.8 x 79.1 cm image; 78.7 x 94.0 cm framed
- Credit
- Purchased 1993
- Accession number
- 328.1993
- Location
- Lower Asian gallery
- Further information
Since the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) successive generations of young Chinese artists have experimented with different ideas and styles, while engaging in an exploratory dialogue with Western philosophy, literature and culture. Academic realism has been taught at Chinese art academies since the 1940s and continues to be a main technique influenced by Classical European art and individual artists such as American painter Andrew Wyeth. While some of the artists of the first two post-Revolution generations depicted the harsh realities of rural poverty and misery with a humane concern, there emerged a third, more despairing generation of artists. Fang Lijun epitomises the generation that adopted a kind of "rogue cynicism" which reflected their acute feeling of the meaninglessness and hopelessness of their own lives and society. Fang Lijun graduated from the printmaking department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. This drawing was one of several he prepared for his graduation assignment with the intention of converting them to etchings. The student demonstrations and Tiananmen Square massacre disrupted classes and the final prints were never made.
'Asian Art', AGNSW Collections, 1994, pg. 209.
- Bibliography (3)
-
Claire Roberts (Author), New Art From China - Post-Mao Product, Sydney, 1992, illus.. cat.no. 30
Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 1994, 209 (colour illus.).
'The Shanghai School and Modern Painting', The Asian Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales 2003, 2003, 178 (colour illus.).
- Exhibition history (6)
-
New Art from China, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 29 Sep 1992–25 Oct 1992.
New Art from China, Queensland Art Gallery, 07 Dec 1992–31 Jan 1993.
New Art from China, City of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 26 Feb 1993–18 Apr 1993.
New Art from China, Canberra School of Art Gallery, 06 May 1993–05 Jun 1993.
Inside Out: New Chinese Art, Asia Society, 15 Sep 1998–03 Jan 1999.
Inside Out: New Chinese Art, San Francisco Museum of Art, 26 Feb 1999–01 Jun 1999.
