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JAMES HYMAN GALLERY
Sun Liang (b.1957)
Please scroll down for further information. Sun Liang (b.1957) Red Leopard Oil on canvas 170 x 140 cms (67 x 55 inches) 2005 Exhibition History: Tattooed Moon, Sun Liang Solo Exhibition, Z-art Center Shanghai, China, 2007 Genesis of Image: Sun Liang’s Oil Paintings, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2006 Sun Liang initially established his reputation as one of the Generation of 85 group of young Chinese artists who with growing liberalism, for the first time engaged with international contemporary art and culture. He was included in the important exhibition China. Avant Garde at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1989 and in 1993 was one of the very first artists to represent China at the Venice Biennale. Although recently, the spot-light has turned on a younger generation of Chinese artists the importance of Sun Liang’s pioneering generation is being increasingly recognised, as is indicated by his inclusion in the opening exhibition, 85 New Wave: The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art, at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing in autumn 2007. In contrast to the cynical realists of Beijing, Sun Liang is a key figure in the art scene of Shanghai. In common with many of the most interesting Chinese contemporary artists, Sun Liang not only engages with international contemporary art but also with Chinese history and experience. Paintings of the 1980s combine Western and Chinese mythology, allegorical works of the later 1980s have specific Chinese roots yet echo the anguish of Bacon, Basquiat and Baselitz and more recently lyrical works have reasserted Chinese techniques as well as imagery. This is evident in Sun Liang’s continuing fascination with the art of calligraphy, scroll painting and brush and ink painting, and is found also in his paintings in which serpents slide and leopards prowl in a highly sexualised world of mutating and mutated mythological beasts. Commenting on Red Leopard, the artist has explained that: "The leopard is the theme that has always appeared in my painting. The animal has ornate patterns and the body shape as an agile beautiful female. The way it walks, its running speed and flow lines, the lazy demeanor, the instantaneous speed and strength, the cruel slaughters, and so on..." Interview with James Hyman, December 2007. Please click here to contact us about this item, or if you wish to buy or sell a work by this artist. | ||||||||
