The art market recognizes Yan Pei Ming as one of the most important contemporary artists in the history of art in the 20th century, and the painter’s works regularly provoke enthusiasm. This enthusiasm is carried by art galleries, museums and contemporary art centres, as well as modern and contemporary art auctions. His paintings are marked by both Chinese and Western artistic practices that stem from his training at the School of Fine Arts. Yan Pei Ming’s paintings are present in modern and contemporary art exhibitions as well as in the most prestigious private collectors.
Yan Pei Ming was born at the end of the Cultural Revolution, in 1960 in Shanghai. He was quickly spotted for his artistic talents, which he was asked to use in the service of state propaganda. In 1980, at just twenty years old, the young painter settled in France and was accepted at the School of Fine Arts in Dijon. Thirteen years later, he obtained a place as a boarder at the Villa Médicis, where he worked on an important project: the 108 brigands.
The painter is above all a portraitist and creates very large format robot portraits using brushes or rollers, which he saturates with black, white and grey. This is a portrait of Mao, whom he “really loves” and whom he represents obsessively before adding other faces to his repertoire. He draws his inspiration from everyday life and from prominent and controversial characters, as well as from great figures of political and cultural current events.
Yan Pei Ming’s talent, his ultra-contemporary vision and his mastered technique, is today recognized not only by collectors and the market since his remarkable participation at the Fiac in 2003, but also by institutions. Indeed, the artist’s work is currently on display at the Musée d’Orsay and the Petit Palais, two prestigious Parisian museums, to celebrate the bicentenary of Gustave Courbet’s birth. The aim is to confront the work of the master of contemporary art with his mentor to show the dialogue and importance of the history of painting in contemporary creation.
