31 FAng LIjun b. 1963 Untitled No. 16, 1996. Colour woodcut on paper on 3 scrolls. Each: 244 × 122 cm (96 × 48 in); overall: 244 × 366 cm (96 × 144 1/8 in). Signed in Chinese, titled and dated ‘Fang Lijun 1996 NO 16’ and numbered of 2. This work is from an edition of 2. PROVENANCE Galerie de France, Paris litERAtuRE Fang Lijun, Changha, Hunan: Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House (another example illustrated) Estimate £6 0,0 0 0 – 8 0,0 0 0 $91, 2 0 0 –12 2,0 0 0 € 6 6,0 0 0 – 8 8 ,0 0 0
Born in 1963 at the height of Chairman Mao’s reign, Fang Lijun grew up despising the false utopian ideals promised by a regime he saw as being inherently flawed. He suffered particular hardship when he was forced, under Mao’s program of rectification, to denounce his own once-prosperous grandfather. As an escape from the harsh realities of the Cultural Revolution, Fang began drawing cynical cartoons of China’s past and present leaders. However, it was not until 1985 – several years after the end of the Cultural Revolution and Chairman Mao’s death – that he properly enrolled in art school, studying printmaking at the Central Academy in Beijing. Here, 214
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