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SEOUL |
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YANG Shaobin
Yang Shaobin is one of the most important artists of the Chinese avant garde. Upon his arrival in Beijing in 1991 he lived in the artists' community at Yuanmingyuan near the Old Summer Palace, he was selected by Harald Szeemann, curator of the 1999 Venice Biennale, for the Aperto section and has pariticipated in most major international exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art.
Yang Shaobin's proclaimed aim in his art is to make the viewer feel pain and he is often called the Francis Bacon of contemporary Chinese art.
His latest works are powerful creations where from afar, at first glance, they are quite simply beautiful. The deep red colour of the works is rich, luscious and instantly draws the viewer in. It is only at closer quarters or seconds later that the full power of the image appears.
Yang Shaobin's work appeals to the Western perception of Asian cruelty but more importantly, plays on universal fears of pain and torture. That China is still an unknown entity to the majority of people only serves to multiply the impact of these works. As Daozi writes in the 1999 Venice Biennale Catalogue (p. 206) “the painting records the destruction of the sense of shame, 'an intention to enable the appearance to reach the nerve system, more violently and poignantly'.”
Yang Shaobin was born in 1963 and now lives in Beijing. In his 2004 catalogue, he is included beside works by Francis Bacon and Arnulf Rainer, artists who influenced him in various ways, a photograph of a crucified ox, with an ripped open corpse and a person tied to him, taken at Hermann Nitsch's Six Day Play from 1998. With these illustrations, Yang pointed to a central issue in his work: the tension between individual violence and compassion with the human creature.
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