Vandalised Fresco

Mao Lizi is an artist that has a great appetite for exploration. As one of the central figures who founded the avant-garde art movement Stars Group after the Cultural Revolution, he never stopped innovating. In the 1990s, he started creating wall and floor frescoes that combined Post-Modernism and Orientalism. Vandalised Fresco (Lot 142) is an iconic work that was produced during that period. The artist re-created the deteriorated qualities of an aged fresco painting as well as a stenciled graffiti of Mao. “The crudely vandalized ancient fresco is an inclusive world where frustration and renewal, restlessness and hope coexist”, Chen Shaoping explained. With his well-honed fresco technique, the artist integrated contemporary concepts into traditional painting. It suggests the coexistence and conflict between traditional culture and popular culture in the 1990s under the rapidly transforming regime in Chinese society.