Lot 5. Yan Pei-Ming (Chinese, born 1960), Paysage International, retour sur le lieu du crime 003, 1999, signed in Pinyin, signed in Chinese, titled and dated 1999 on the reverse, oil on canvas, 180 by 300.5 cm, 70 7/8 by 118 5/16 in. Estimate £ 18,000 - 25,000 (€ 22,000 - 30,000). © Bonhams 2001-2020.

Provenance: Bernier/Eliades, Athens
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1999.

Exhibited: Athens, Bernier/Eliades, Yan Pei-Ming, 1999, no. 4.

Literature: Francesco Bonami, Yan Pei-Ming, New York 2017, p. 104, illustrated in colour.

Note: With works held in the collections of the world's most prominent institutions including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Yan Pei-Ming's career has soared since his beginnings creating propaganda frescoes idealizing popular heroes of the Cultural Revolution. In 1980 the artist left for France, where he would develop his signature style of over-sized portraits and anonymous landscapes in palettes of black, white and red. Recognized today as one of China's most important contemporary artists, his work is currently being celebrated in a landmark exhibition at the Petit Palais, Paris. 

Impressive in scale and reproduced in Francesco Bonami's monumental monograph on the artist, Paysage International, retour sur le lieu du crime 003 depicts an impenetrable blackened scene, one that is both everywhere and nowhere; a disquieting image that is further compounded by the work's title. As described by the artist, "if you paint a landscape, often it is seductive. "Yes, this is a pretty landscape." If you title it "Lieu du Crime" [Scene of the crime], however, something happens. It's as if you are walking down the street and someone says to you, "A man was killed here a while ago." Suddenly the place acquires a history." (the artist in: 'Chinese Kungfu: Fabian Stech, interview with Yan Pei-Ming,' in Yan Pei-Ming, Execution , Dijon 2006, p.43). The image becomes emotionally charged, compelling the viewer to assign personal meaning to it. 

Oscillating between gestural representation and abstraction, his singularity of subject matter in conjunction with his use of infinite tautology impresses upon his works' collective character. A timeless beauty, the anonymity of the landscape becomes steeped with meaning, visible not only in the title but in the artist's subtle use of textures, revealing a tactile and layered surface. Executed with both speed and precision and without the use of sketches, Yan Pei-Ming work only seeks to reinforce the importance of the gesture and ultimately the act of painting itself.

Bonhams. Post-War & Contemporary Art, London, 12 March 2020