Ink and colour on paper

68.5×136 cm. 27×53 1/2 in.

Stamped with two artist's seals on bottom left; stamped with three artist's seals on bottom right

LITERATURE
2006, Wei Dong: Perfumed Paradise, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong, p.76-77
EXHIBITED
8 – 23 Sep 2006, Wei Dong: Perfumed Paradise, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong

PROVENANCE
Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
Private Collection, Asia

Using Bold Strokes to Challenge Tradition
Wei Dong's Exploration of the Times

Wei Dong was born in 1968 in Inner Mongolia and graduated from the Fine Arts College of Beijing Normal University in 1991. The era in which he grew up was one of great societal transformation in China, with significant political upheaval and ideological shifts that subtly influenced his creative work. His works are collected by institutions such as the Trammell Crow Museum in the United States, the Queensland Art Gallery in Australia, the Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan, and the Modern Chinese Art Foundation in Belgium.

Since the early 1990s, Wei Dong has used ink and colour on paper as his medium. Still, his work has been deeply anti-traditional. Ming Landscape: Body Temperature is a vivid example, juxtaposing classical Chinese landscapes, akin to those by Ni Zan, with the enigmatic and eroticized female form in the style of Balthus, boldly challenging traditional aesthetic standards.

A Thought-Provoking Contemporary Landscape

Traditional landscapes in China represented the early cultural dominance of the scholar-official class, which was predominantly male. Wei Dong subverts this tradition by depicting three female protagonists in large-scale proportions. On the left, a short-haired woman holding a thermometer is covered with images symbolising wealth and prosperity. A logo of the cosmetic brand Laurent Cristanel is emblazoned on her thigh. She shows dark humor pointing to the capitalist fervor of the consumerist era and the viral spread of commercial advertising. On the right, a woman without clothes is wrapped in a red cloth that covers her head. Bound to her is a figure dressed in a Red Guard-style uniform. Upon closer inspection, the two seem to have a relationship of control and submission, yet both are pierced with silver needles, unaware of their shared fate in the common area. The artist critiques the collective consciousness' insensitivity and blindness.Notably, Wei Dong's female figures possess a "Freudian" physicality. He openly portrays bloating limbs, varicose veins, and muscles twisted into knots, adopting a "de-sacralised" approach that breaks away from the idealised depictions of the female form in European classical art. Much like the realist master Courbet, he exposes reality in a raw manner, confronting inner struggles and challenging conventions.

Price estimate:
HKD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 5,100 – 7,700