Artists
Wang Guangyi
Wang Guangyi (1957, Harbin, China) is one of the most important artists of contemporary China, a leading figure in the revival of Chinese art during the 1980s. His series Great Criticism (1990-2007), for which he gained international recognition, combines critical realism with pop art elements. With a strong political and social dimension, and based on his personal experience in the Chinese context — where recent history is marked by the cultural revolution and the capitalist market expansion —, Wang Guangyi compares two apparently opposing worlds: the revolutionary aesthetics of his country and the dazzling image of Western capitalism in order to reflect on the tensions between ideology and capitalism. In his paintings, he questions both the ideological systems and the manipulation tactics of the Government through propaganda and advertising, and uses the image not only as a representation, but as a tool to transform the perception of reality and to question the systems controlling it. However, his work is not limited to mere 'Chinese political pop', as biographer Demetrio Paparoni suggests, since his interests go beyond that. Wang's work is influenced by Western philosophy and explores themes such as transcendence and faith, which play a central role in his art.
