1 No.6
Wang Jianwei
汪建伟
Production date
2016
Object Detail
Media
oil and acrylic on canvas
Measurements
249 x 184 cm
Notes
An oil and acrylic painting, 1. No. 6 (2016), features a figure dressed in red, seated on a geometric structure, gazing off to the right. The modelled clothing and flat background – indeed the impenetrable relationship between the figure and its ambiguous space – reveal Wang’s interest in the paintings of Francis Bacon, a significant influence on his early style. A band of strong yellow in the background on the left of the canvas, and a narrow yellow line bisecting it vertically, seem to illuminate the figure in a shaft of light, recalling the heavenly beams in a Renaissance painting of the Annunciation. Here, though, the yellow references his 2011 solo show in Beijing, ‘Yellow Signal’, which explored his preoccupation with the momentary stillness between one action and another, like the brief moment between the illumination of red and green traffic lights. Wang’s solitary figure appears at once static and filled with restless energy. The underlying concept, Wang says, is ‘rehearsal’: the theatricality of the painting is due to its source in Welcome to the Desert of the Real, a play created and directed by the artist in 2010.
Accession number
2017.056