June 30, 2007
We stumbled on the Yue Minjun exhibit in May, but the gallery was closed that weekend, so I returned on the last day of the full showing. Yue Minjun is a Chinese contemporary artist best known for his smiling figures, portrayed in both paintings and sculpture. His art is known as 'Cynical Realism.'
This is Yue Minjun's first solo exhibition in the US.
25 Contemporary Terra Cotta Warriors consists of 25 identical smiling figures. Like Qin Shi Huang's Terracotta Warriors in Shanxi Province, the multitude of the figures exudes force, but the laughter on their faces and uniformity of their pose suggests a lighter relationship to culture and history.
When Yue first created his works with these smiling figures, some saw them as a response to political tumult. Today, with the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, some see these figures as celebrating China's future.
Yue says the smile represents the Taoist
philosophy that the wearer is able to laugh off
problems of the world and achieve tranquility.