Cynical realism

Yue Minjun’s style is easily be recognized. His self-portrait oil paintings depict himself in vivid colors while grinning with his mouth gaping. An oxymoron of sorts, the self-portraits evoke feelings of sympathy as well as humor. The depictions of himself in various poses laughing draw numerous diverse interpretations. However, the general consensus is that while the self-portraits are meant to display humor, they also show the complexities found underneath the outer surface.

With our Art Basel Hong Kong Online Viewing Room now open, we invited our team of curators to individually respond to a selection of artwork highlights, offering you their unique contextual commentary on each work and how it fits into each artist's larger practice. We'll be posting new essays throughout the run of the fair, so we encourage you to check back regularly for new insight and artworks.

Yue Minjun — contemporary Chinese artist. Movement: Cynical Realism. { i see immediately humorous and sympathetic in his artworks } btw the artworks illustrate mostly his laughing face. :D

Celebrated Chinese painter Yue Minjun first rose to fame in the 1990s as a key member of Beijing’s Cynical Realism movement. Inspired by Pop Art and surrealism, Yue’s best-known work

In part 2 of 'China/Art/Soft Power' Natalie Andrews explores the Chinese middle class and their buying habits in the art world. Export cynisism abroad consume nationalism at home a great way to do business!

Lauded as one of the leading contemporary artists to emerge from China, Yue Minjun is an accomplished painter, sculptor and printmaker whose signature motif of gleefully laughing figures serve as caricatures that reflect the contradictions and absurdities of contemporary life. The artist is often listed as a member of the cynical realism movement that emerged in the mid-1990s in China and that came of age in the wake of the socio-political upheaval created by the Tiananmen Square…

In part 2 of 'China/Art/Soft Power' Natalie Andrews explores the Chinese middle class and their buying habits in the art world. Export cynisism abroad consume nationalism at home a great way to do business!

It is impossible and wrong, in this fascinating exhibition on Russian art between 1917-1932, to separate art from politics, utopian propaganda from dystopian tragedy. Aesthetic judgement is inevitably compromised. Some may think it obscene to celebrate this period in Russian art: yet it is surely right to make us confront it, to see the boldness of the art and to try and fathom the mixed motives, the hopes and fears and struggles of the artists involved. Right too, when the headlines are…

Profoundly marked by the history of contemporary China, Yue Minjun, one of the most influential artists of his generation, uses laughter as an outlet.