Fang Lijun

Fang Lijun (方力均 Born 1963, Handan, Hebei province, China) is an artist based in Beijing. He was born in a wealthy, high status family. Living in China during this critical time shaped his worldview in terms of his views on art, human values and morality. Fang Lijun decided to leave high school to pursue his artistic dream. At the beginning of 1992, Fang Lijun moved to Yuanmingyuan village in north-west Beijing.

Leading the Cyncial Realist movement after 1989, "Fang Lijun is considered one of the most important figures in Chinese contemporary art". Fang Lijun is famous with his "illustrative style and bald-headed" figures. In these paintings, bald headed young men are in different motions: yawning, smiling, swimming, etc. Some of the figures are described as confusion or considered "dumbfounded by modern society". His figures represent the loss in direction of youths in China after 1989. In his paintings, he also uses elements of water and flower a lot. Water plays a big role in Fang Lijun's paintings. On an interview, he explained that water is helping him convey a message about his feeling and his voice about the truth and what is going in Chinese society. His famous work with water is the guy being drown in the water. Part of the reason for this paining relates to his childhood experience when he was almost drown. The second and most important part relation about this painting is he is expressing his feelings about the Chinese society. When the guy is drowning in the water, that guy is representing for painter like Fang Lijun. He feels like he does not have a voice, that he is powerless in this societal structure and that he cannot even make his own decision or speaks the right truth. Also, his hope is to freely go and move in the water metaphorically. He is hoping to be able to speak for himself, for other artists and to inspire everybody.

In new paintings, the background and the children are painted in bright colors. Besides, figures are located in the spiral pattern in which children are flying back to heaven. One approach is that this painting reveals a new hope for the young generation that can change the future of China. People have hopes on the youths that they can restructure or remodel the society so that everybody can have a voice and everybody lives in freedom. The other approach describes death as a relief from this life. Because life is too stressful or too complicated, death becomes the best solution to escape from this world to go to a more peaceful place such as heaven.

C.V.

Other and former works: