Yan Pei-Ming (Chinese, born 1960), 嚴培明


Mitreya Buddha 2003signed in English and Chinese, titled and dated janvier 2003 on the reverseoil on canvas180 x 200 cm (70 7/8 x 78 3/4 in)
|ProvenanceBernier/Eliades Gallery, AthensAcquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2003嚴培明彌勒佛油彩畫布2003年作背面簽名：Mitreya Buddha janvier 2003 Yan Pei-Ming 嚴培明來源雅典Bernier/Eliades畫廊現藏家在2003年直接購自上述畫廊'The figure of Buddha is also omnipresent in my work. I was born in a temple in Shanghai. My mother is very devout, and therefore from my earliest childhood, I was really involved with Buddhism... In general, all of my paintings of Buddha come from sculptures – because I am very interested in the volume of the real object, and the play of light and shadow that participates in the mystery of representation' The artist in: Ariane Coulondre and Emmanuelle Ollier, 'In the Worlds of the Artist', Interview with Yan Pei-Ming, 2012Yan Pei-Ming's Mitreya Buddha from 2003 is a majestic and elegant painting belonging to one of the artist's most sought after series. Executed with confident and quick brushstrokes and with a restricted palette of reds and whites, the figure of Buddha is presented here, as in most of Yan Pei-Ming's paintings, against a monochrome background rendering the figure as the unequivocal core of the composition. Yan Pei-Ming is a master of portraiture, his practice combines Chinese visual tradition with a Western approach resulting in a distinctive style. The artist favours large canvases, reminiscent perhaps of the large-scale propaganda images that dominated the landscape of of China during the Chinese Cultural Revolution whilst he was a child. But also because the artist upon his arrival in France, at the age of 20, was very much impressed by the large paintings he saw in the Louvre and their power. Yan Pei-Ming never makes sketches, he paints directly onto canvas with a performative approach and therefore his portraits are never static. This is particularly visible in Mitreya Buddha through the artist's large and gestural brushstrokes, by the paint dripping and by the movement of Buddha's right hand; this is a revitalised and dynamic image of Buddha. The use of red in this painting makes it extremely powerful and it is, at the same time, a reminder of the political environment during the artist's upbringing as well as evocative of vitality and purity in Chinese tradition. Yan Pei-Ming's works are held in major institutions including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Shanghai Art Museum, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the Louvre in Abu Dhabi and The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra amongst many others. Mitreya Buddha from 2003 is a timeless portrait by one of the most prominent Chinese-French contemporary artists.「在我的創作中也經常可見佛的形象。我在上海一座寺廟裡出生，母親是虔誠的佛教徒，因此我從小就接觸佛教......一般來說我都以佛像為繪畫對象——因為我對實物的量感有興趣，繪畫之時光影交錯，這謎樣的再現過程也令人著迷。」引自：'In the Worlds of the Artist'一書中作者Ariane Coulondre 與Emmanuelle Ollier對嚴培明的採訪，2012年《彌勒佛》（Mitreya Buddha）創作於二〇〇三年，氣勢恢宏而優雅，為嚴培明最受人追捧的系列作品。他用紅白雙色完成這幅畫，飛快的筆觸透露出自信。如同他大部分的畫作，畫中主角的背景只有單一色調，使得彌勒佛成為為構圖中最明確的視覺核心。嚴培明是肖像畫大師，他的創作中中國視覺傳統和西方技巧相得益彰，因而成就了獨一無二的風格。他偏好在大尺幅的畫布上作畫，讓人不禁聯想到他孩提時代，處處可見文革時期的大型政治宣傳畫。爾後嚴氏在二十歲移居法國，在羅浮宮看到大幅巨作時，當下感到非常震撼，這也是他選用大尺幅畫布創作的原因之一。嚴培明作畫時從來不打草稿，每每以表演式的手法直接在畫布上起筆，因此他的肖像畫絕不生硬死板。《彌勒佛》一作即透露出此特色。無論是豪邁揮灑的筆法、滴落的顏料或是佛像右手的動作，均造就了這幅生氣勃勃、形象鮮明的圖像。作品中的紅色賦予圖像非凡的氣勢，同時具有提醒作用，讓人聯想到藝術家成長時期的政治環境以及中國傳統的生命力與純度。嚴培明的作品為許多重要機構收藏，巴黎龐畢度藝術中心（Centre Pompidou）、上海美術館、東京國立現代美術館（National Museum of Modern Art）、杜拜羅浮宮、坎培拉澳洲國家美術館（The National Gallery of Australia）等均在其列。作為當今最重要的旅法中國當代藝術家，嚴培明於二〇〇三年創作的這件《彌勒佛》無疑是一幅日久彌新的肖像畫。