Yue Minjun’s paintings offer a light-hearted approach to philosophical enquiry and contemplation of existence. Drawing connotations to the disparate images of the Laughing Buddha and the inane gap toothed grin of Alfred E. Newman, Yue’s self-portraits have been describe by theorist Li Xianting as “a self-ironic response to the spiritual vacuum and folly of modern-day China. The Paintings, sculptures and installations of Yue Minjun always feature uniform laughing faces. And if these laughing faces are observed carefully, it will be noticed that these faces are the face of Yue Minjun.

The acidic tones and commercialized vacuity of his works are used to underscore the insincerity of his figures’ mirth. As both antagonists and anti-heroes, Yue’s hysterical cohorts equally bully the viewer and stand as subjects of ridicule. Using laughter as a denotation of violence and vulnerability, Yue’s paintings balance a zeitgeist of modern day anxiety with an Eastern philosophical ethos, positing the response to the true nature of reality as an endless cynical guffaw.Yue Minjun presents various realities that emerge as the background behind the laughing visages. These realities emerge through various easy to recognize symbols, metaphors and signs, or through depictions of daily life. The laughing faces and the representations of reality in Yue Minjun’s works are closely related. And this relationship shows Yue Minjun’s fairly easy to read cynicism in confrontation with reality.

Can the works of Yue Minjun be said to be self-portraits? Does his artwork present any insight into the conflict between individuality and collectivism? Does his work indicate self-identification that represents the pressing of the self-identity into a collective existence? Of the many questions that arise, this is The mose basic: Can the meaning of Yue Minjun’s self-portraits be categorized as auratic or post-auratic Within the development of modern art, the search for reality through representation has been fully deter-mined by the relationship between the individual absolute and reality. Yue subverts the grandiose aura of art history through his adaptation of pop aesthetics.

Selected Exhibitions-
2004
• Yue Minjun: Sculptures And Paintings, Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong
2003
• Yue Minjun: Beijing Ironicals, Prüss & Ochs Gallery, Berlin, Germany
• Yue Minjun, Meile Gallery, Switzerland
2002
• Soaking In Silly Laughter: One Of Art Singapore 2002, Soobin Art Gallery, Singapore
• Yue Minjun: Handling, One World Art Center, China
2000
• Red Ocean: Yue Minjun, Chinese Contemporary, London, Uk

Conclusions:
Yue Minjun’s paintings offer a light-hearted approach to philosophical enquiry and contemplation of existence. The laughing faces and the representations of reality in Yue Minjun’s works are closely related

What to Do Next...
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