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Zeng Fanzhi
Water X
2019 - 2023
Oil on canvas
90 1/2 x 90 1/2 in. On loan from private collector
© Zeng Fanzhi / Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
Born in Wuhan, China, Beijing-based painter Zeng Fanzhi (b. 1964) occupies a unique position among the contemporary generation of artists. Representing the spirit of his time, his art shows a strong interest in both portraiture and abstraction in response to his self-exploration in personal experiences and emotions. His early Hospital and Meat Series are defined by unflinching viscerality. His iconic Mask Series, painted after moving to Beijing in the early 1990s, display existential concerns regarding the isolation and alienation in rapidly modernizing Chinese urban life of the period.
Since the 2000s, he has added a new dimension to his art by turning to classical Chinese painting and philosophy. The intellectual quest fuel his imagination and painting practice, resulting in an extensive body of works titled Abstract Landscape in the following two decades. Abstract Landscapes are characterized by his intuitive approach, allowing linear, bold, expressionistic brushwork to unfold naturally on the canvas.
A completely new image-making and brushwork in abstract art have been explored since 2019, and made its premiere in institutional exhibitions. The artist simultaneously dresses on and challenges impressionist and pointillist painting practices, whereby images materialize and also dissolve through meticulous placement of individual marks of colour - allowing the artist to refine the abstract through the exercises of figurative/ representation and vice versa. Relying on the artist’s mastery command of oil painting, his wet-on-wet technique, and the sheer materiality of paint that defines his work, his art challenges viewers to recognize the superiority of painting as a time-honoured means to convey consciousness and sensibility of our time. Read more
Since the 2000s, he has added a new dimension to his art by turning to classical Chinese painting and philosophy. The intellectual quest fuel his imagination and painting practice, resulting in an extensive body of works titled Abstract Landscape in the following two decades. Abstract Landscapes are characterized by his intuitive approach, allowing linear, bold, expressionistic brushwork to unfold naturally on the canvas.
A completely new image-making and brushwork in abstract art have been explored since 2019, and made its premiere in institutional exhibitions. The artist simultaneously dresses on and challenges impressionist and pointillist painting practices, whereby images materialize and also dissolve through meticulous placement of individual marks of colour - allowing the artist to refine the abstract through the exercises of figurative/ representation and vice versa. Relying on the artist’s mastery command of oil painting, his wet-on-wet technique, and the sheer materiality of paint that defines his work, his art challenges viewers to recognize the superiority of painting as a time-honoured means to convey consciousness and sensibility of our time. Read more
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