Oil on canvas

108×79 cm. 42 1/2×31 1/8 in.

Signed in pinyin and dated on bottom left; signed in Chinese and pinyin and dated on middle right

LITERATURE
1997, Two Brothers' Views of Hong Kong: Recent Oil Paintings by Song Yonghong & Song Yongping, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong, p.11
2007, Song Yongping: Paintings from 1989 to 2007, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong, p.69
EXHIBITED
11- 31 Mar 1997, Two Brothers' Views of Hong Kong: Recent Oil Paintings by Song Yonghong & Song Yongping, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong

PROVENANCE
Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
Private Collection, Asia

The Retrogression of Classicism and Tradition
Song Yongping's Art Manifesto

Born in Shanxi in 1961, Song Yongping graduated from the Department of Painting at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 1983 and became a Distinguished Professor at his alma mater in 2017. As a recipient of higher education three years after the college entrance examination resumed post-Cultural Revolution, Song Yongping reflected on the so-called social norm and gradually began to search for an independent consciousness as an artist, becoming a forward-looking and active figure in China's 85 New Wave Movement. He believes that art must not be elusive and elevated; rather, it must have strong and practical links with real life. His avant-garde artistic concepts earned him a large fan base and his works have been shown in Beijing, Shanghai, Oslo, New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong, among others.

Rebellion Leading the People

The lying female nude is a classic motif in Western oil painting tradition, such as La Grande Odalisque by the French Neo-classical master, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Song Yongping's To Conquer the Bed continues Ingres, legacy of using the lying nude's bedroom as the setting but intentionally employs elegant blues and flamboyant pinks as the dominant colours to illustrate the luxurious drapery and Rococo-style interior decoration. The nude woman, who is supposed to be the protagonist, is thrown out of bed and loses her refined, calm expression. Song Yongping grants her realistic wrinkles, oily skin texture, exaggerated facial expression and stubby frame, unveiling the idealisation in Western masterpieces and ridiculing how the upper class glorifies themselves to satisfy their desires. On the right, a group of peasants and soldiers rush into the picture: their faces are resolute or infuriated, growling, even; wearing plain-coloured uniforms and sweatshirts with bamboo hats, army caps or towels on their heads. Brandishing their spears, the figures occupy the bed as a fortress, as if setting up machine guns to charge into the battlefield. In a magical realistic manner, Song Yongping boldly and humourously contrasts elements from the past and the present, thereby initiating a grand "rebellion" against the global art scene dominated by Western art historic orthodoxy.

Price estimate:
HKD 90,000 – 150,000
USD 11,500 – 19,200