Fang Lijun not only paints his friends but also himself. He paints from photographs – holiday photos and snap shots, taken himself or by friends.

　　It is characteristic of his work that the faces, despite their clear outlines, incorporate something indefinite, lose their identity and develop into shadowy, vague images. The de-individualization is increased by the complete baldness of all his male figures. Nevertheless, many faces are similar to Fang Lijun’s but this similarity often blurs at the edges.

　　I paint. Instead of saying that I want to express myself, I prefer to say that l want to paint a picture, not in the naive sense as children do, according to the ideas of their own wishful thinking, but in the sense that I paint real human beings. These people are like rolling balls which change direction as soon as they encounter the slightest obstacle; or they are like stationary balls, which start to roll with the slightest incline. Human beings are neither cruel nor good-natured, their behaviour always depends upon the conditions they are acting under… During painting this can be very advantageous, …if on the one hand the facial expression and the clothes etc. are painted very accurately but on the other hand the movements and posture remain indefinable; or if a person laughs it may look as though they are about to cry, and if they cry, it appears a little odd and contrived.

　　However, the most realistic portrayal grasps these indeterminate emotions and so develops a space, extending from the concrete to the immeasurable.

　　Female characters play a particular role: they are always placed in the foreground of paintings whilst men, though related as subjects, take the supporting role. The background figures seem to function as silent commentators in such scenes.

　　However, the men’s body language is not harmless in any of these pictures, as behind each laugh a certain brutality is present which could erupt at any moment. These works possess a threatening aspect in the presence of multiply reproduced identical figures, added to by the unrealistic bright pink of their bodies.

　　To paint the human body I use unmixed paint, sold by the manufacturer under the name “flesh-colour”. If it appears absurd to the eye, it proves just how absurd we are in many of the ideas we regard as natural; paint manufacturers only produce “flesh-colour” worldwide in this way

　　because the vast majoril7 believes that flesh looks like that.

　　Some of his earlier, small grisaille paintings display a less self-critical, more socio-critical point of view. In their colourlessness they are traversed by the cold unreality of a nightmare. The figures appear even more incomprehensible than in his later monumental and colourful works and have no logical connection to their environment.

　　They seem as if projected randomly onto any background. In these works there is almost no trace of laughter. Instead, the same old men are portrayed looking hatefully from the background towards the representatives of the younger generation.

　　Fang Lijun belongs to a generation in China labelled as disillusioned or even lost. His remarks on these issues, collected in an as yet unpublished text, could also apply to these paintings:

　　“Why are we a lost generation? This is nonsense, put about by others who want us to think, live and function so well that we satisfy their egoistic needs like their battery hens. But we will not do it. We neither obey the rules of life imposed by them nor collect a salary as public servants as they do. But we do not starve, we have more money than they do, are more relaxed and happy, have more women and time to have fun or travel. That is why we are called the lost generation. But deep in their hearts the people think that we are a generation which should be shot.”

　　JuN