Fang Lijun is one of the most important contemporary Chinese artists. He has been at the forefront of Chinese Avant-garde and was one of the founders of Cynical Realism. He was born in Hebei Province in 1963 and studied at the central Academy of Fine Art. Fang’s work was recognized internationally as early as 1993 when he attended the 45th Venice Biennale and participated in the China Avant-Garde exhibiton tour in several European countries. More recently, as well as holding frequent solo exhibitions, he has participated In Inside Out: New Chinese Art and again at the Venice Biennale.

　　Since the mid-1990s Fang’s preferred subjects have been swimming and clouds. He loves to swim and draws a comparison between this experience of going through life. His Swimming series evokes the sensation of being alone in the water where one is unable to hear anything and has no way of knowing what might arise. There is a sense of helplessness and uncertainty similar to the helplessness and uncertainty that one feels in life. The waves may seem calm and gentle but they are inconstant and unreliable and there is a risk that danger will strike out of the blue.

　　Often Fang sets his subjects against a background of a blue sky with white clouds. A notable example is the series of paintings that he created in 1996 of laughing skinheads with bright flowers. There works hare s relation to his earlier skinhead “Popi” works. “Popi” is a word coined by Chinese artists meaning “feigning ignorance”. They see this as a common Chinese attitude, a philosophy of detachment: “forget it if it has nothing to do with me.” There is a Chinese saying that the ocean is wide and the sky high as long as one stands back. In contemplating this idea, and picturing the high sky and wide ocean in one’s mind’s eye, it is possible to find a sense of relief from pressure. Similarly the blue sky and the white clouds in Fang’s work, as well as having a symbolic meaning, add a sense of relief to his paintings.

　　Since the late 1990s, Fang Lijun has produced a number of huge woodcuts. He specialized in woodcut as a student and has always intended to continue his work in this medium with a view to breaking new ground. Whilst the woodcut has traditionally been used for small works such as book illustrations, Fang Lijun creates individual and innovative woodcut prints on a huge scate. It is a technical challenge to create such large works without compromising sharpness of line, and in achieving this, his works make a real contribution to the field. Fang uses electric saws, usually reserved for industrial purposes, and the end result id extremely powerful. Fang’s woodcuts, with their sharp lines, have a completely different feel to his smooth oil and acrylic paintings. They communicate a feeling of force, movement and confrontation, in stark contrast to the serenity of his paintings.

　　出处：Dream 2001(梦), Contemporary Chinese art exhibition, 2001.