Auction - Iconic Zheng Fanzhi at Christies

This monumental Mask painting by Zeng Fanzhi will be sold at Christies' Hong Kong sale in May. Zeng’s iconic “Mask” series embodies the existential crisis that faced the artist’s generation as China modernised rapidly in the 1990s. When he moved to Beijing in '93, the introverted artist found it difficult to make friends and his feelings of solitude and isolation became the main theme for this series, the Mask series, where the well-dressed urbanized population are depicted wearing white masks, looking at the viewer with blank stares or puzzled eyes.
I met the artist in 2007 and he recalled, "In the mid-'90s, China was transforming very fast. Chinese officials  started wearing suits and ties. Everybody wanted to look good, but it also looked a bit fake. I felt they wanted to change themselves on the surface, and these are the feelings that I represented in the earlier Mask series. Later on, the series used more vibrant colors; I think it makes people look even more fake, as if they are posing on a stage."
The series started in 1994 and continued until 2000, the year this painting was done. Click here to read more about this artist.