Yan Pei-Ming. Tête (Head)

Signed in Pinyin and dated 1990 on the reverse. Oil on canvas. 88 1/4 by 80 3/4 in. 224.2 by 205.1 cm. Estimate: 300,000—500,000 USD - Not sold.

PROVENANCE : Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2006
Private Collection, France

NOTE: Born in 1960 in Shanghai, Yan Peiming moved to Dijon, France, in 1980. Yan is perhaps best known for his outsize portraits of Mao, created with the use of freely gestural brushstrokes. Other large portraits include images of Bruce Lee, the Pope, and Yan's own father. Yan grew up during the Cultural Revolution, and it is possible to see in his paintings a dark view of life. His art, however, is mediated by broad strokes of the brush that create expressive portraits or full-length studies, images that bear an unusual amount of energy and complicate the viewer's reading of his art as solely pessimistic. But it is true that Yan tends to paint the dispossessed, as well as famous subjects or his circle of friends—one of his series concerned the children of a Soweto South African ghetto. Yan's international art has been increasingly recognized throughout the world; he showed his paintings in the Venice Biennial in 2003, and at the Seville Biennial in 2006. His first solo show in America occurred in May 2007, at the David Zwirner Gallery.

Tête (Lot 9), a very large (225 by 205 cm) oil portrait painted in 1990, shows Yan at his vigorous, epic best. This black-and-white painting is filled with bravura brushwork, with one side of the face highlighted in white and gray broad strokes and the other side painted in darker tones. The lowest part of the face, around the mouth and chin, is almost completely dark, with the exception of one whitish stroke in the middle of the mouth. Painted with a riveting intensity, Tête reveals not only the strong gaze and energies of the person portrayed, but also the exuberance of the painter himself. Yan clearly shows himself, in this work and others, to be a master of a realism influenced by the fluid paint handling of De Kooning. His art, while seemingly tragic, also demonstrates a considerable appetite for life. -Jonathan Goodman

Sotheby's. Contemporary Art Asia. 17 Sep 08  New York. www.sothebys.com