Repeated Illusion 2
Dong Yuan
董媛
Production date
2012
Object Detail
Media
acrylic on canvas
Measurements
framed painting 71 x 55.5 cm
installed 130 x 80 x 50 cm
installed 130 x 80 x 50 cm
Notes
In the Repeated Illusion series (2012) Dong Yuan returned to the Flemish masters who had intrigued her as a student — she began to appropriate and subtly subvert their works, applying the same clear gaze and wry humour that she brings to painting her own domestic interiors. In Repeated Illusion 1 (2012) a dark Flemish still life has all the flowers removed from the glass vessel that originally contained them. Now, individually painted cut-out tulips are pegged on a rope strung above the canvas, like washing on a line. The lighter world beyond is reflected in the green vase, standing empty on the table. In other paintings in the series, the game birds once rendered with meticulous realism in European oil paintings have been unceremoniously extracted from the composition, their corpses hanging limply above or below the canvas. Dong Yuan loves Da Vinci and Duchamp equally. In these works, we see the results of such an apparently unlikely juxtaposition: Dada’s love of the absurd and playful meets the beauty and virtuoso technique of the old master.
Accession number
2013.081