Modern and Contemporary Art Master Yue Minjun

Born in 1962 in Daqing City in Heilongjiang province, Yue Minjun had almost gone through all the experiences that Chinese children encountered at his time—cultural revolution, violence, political movements, etc. However, he was lucky at the same time. What he had met before provided a wide range of materials for his future art creation. In 1987, Yue Minjun and his other two classmates held "S Art Exhibition" in the Exhibition Hall of Hebei Province (current Hebei Museum). In the 1990s, he became the free artist of “drifting family” and gradually regarded painting as the ultimate goal of his whole life.

There was an obvious narrative ideal in his art works: indulgent imagination, self-intoxication, questioning realistic survival in a mocking tone, highlighting the nature of existence in an absurd way. His pictures expressed skepticism of many prevailing values, but there was no direct anger. He tried to convey sharp humor in a mocking and laughing way. Although these images were processed exaggeratingly and typically, they precisely highlighted his "vivid and absurd living condition". When we were immersed in a seemingly ridiculous picture scene and in a cynical, exaggerate, ironic and banter dialogues, we could feel the perverse human nature, survival paradox as well as the criticism and questioning attitude that creation subject from the dialogues showed on realistic cultures. Yue Minjun used an ironic and cynical humor directly demonstrated the spirit during a special period of China. His humor and comic techniques tried to turn meaningful things into interesting ones.