Oil, acrylic and embroidery on canvas; a pair of embroidered shoes

181 × 217 cm;  24 × 16 cm.  71 1/4 x 85 3/8 in;  9 1/2 x 6 1/4 in.

Signed in English and dated on upper right

LITERATURE
2011, Duan Jianyu: Apotheosis of Imagination, Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, Changsha, p.36-37
2017, The First Daojiao New Art Festival, Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House, Chengdu, p.134-137
EXHIBITED
8 – 18 May 2016, Dissensus Agitation - The Painting to Language, Today Art Museum, Beijing
28 Sep – 27 Oct 2016, The First Daojiao New Art Festival, XI Contemporary Art Center, Dongguan

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

The Existentialist Philosophy of Traditional Will
Selections from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum—Duan Jianyu “Embroidered Shoes Series”
Duan Jianyu is an important artist born in the 1970s whose works differ from the localist “story telling” and poetry that informs the art of many of her contemporaries. In 2017, she was commissioned by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and became one of five artists on the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative. Duan’s works have been shown and collected by the Centre Georges-Pompidou in France, Tate Modern in the UK and the Guggenheim in New York. Indeed, she has made a name for herself in international art circles as an artist who produces works that though rooted in tradition resonate internationally.
Resistance Rooted in Tradition
Embroidered Shoes Series
After 2010, Duan Jianyu’s Embroidered Shoes Series began to appear with story telling images and an absurdist expressive style that can be traced to the same origins as her earlier work, though its use of traditional culture, aesthetics and art history together with its cross-medium style, speak to a more advanced approach. The Embroidered Shoes Series reflects the influence of folk art on the artist and as such represents an extension of the process by which Duan learned painting and her preference for the colors of folk painters. It also establishes a sense of custom and medium independent from populism that conveys a unique local visual appeal.
The latest addition to this series, A Pair of Embroidered Shoes - Spring River in the Flower Moon Night 5 was shown as part of the One Hand Clapping exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in May 2018. This work was produced after the artist was invited to be part of the Chinese Art Initiative launched by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation in 2018. On completion, it was also acquired by the Guggenheim Museum as part of its collection, an indication of the transcendent academic value and special meaning of the series. For the spring exhibition, we are delighted to offer, an earlier piece from the same series, presenting collectors with an opportunity to buy a museum quality art work for their collection.
Breaking From Realistic Representations
A Pair of Embroidered Shoes: The Girls All Look Good No.2
A Pair of Embroidered Shoes –The Girls All Look Good No.2 depicts three fur coats in different styles, showing the texture of the different imitation leopard skin coats in great detail. The fine brush strokes and layered texture showcase a sense of three dimensions that approximates to reality and the random brushwork shows the animal pattern in a way that is completely natural. The almost empty background highlights further the gorgeous pattern and texture of the fur coats, though the use of yellowing blocks, contrasted against the fashion atmosphere created by chrome yellow and bright pink, presents a mottled sense of the times. Combined with the allusion in the title of the work, the piece represents a narrative on an era in which “individual material conditions changed over time.”
The pair of folk handicraft “Beijing cloth shoes” is placed below the painting as a cryptic allusion. A device with a light bulb is installed on the sole of one of the shoes, a reference to the impact of modern technology on traditional life. In the other is hidden scissors, needle and thread, an apparent reference to the female embroiderer behind the shoes, who becomes a potential narrator for the piece. The appearance of the embroidered shoes is the first time Duan Jianyu experimented with juxtaposing real world objects and images. This imbues a traditional object with a modern feel and the referential nature of the real world object and picture, together with the mixing and fusion of Chinese semiotics and Western expressionism, serve to powerfully challenge the unitary focus of local oil painting.
The embroidered cloth shoes and fur coats use image expression and the clearly female character behind these cultural items, to reference the real feelings of a woman artist on life. It is almost as if the objects in this early work by Duan Jianyu belong to two sisters and she uses the clothing worn by different generations to highlight the progression of time from tradition to modernity,

Price estimate:
HKD: 1,200,000 - 2,200,000
USD: 153,800 - 282,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,416,000