Lot 48: MAO YAN B. 1968 PORTRAIT OF THOMAS

Signed Mao Yan, dated September 2000

oil on canvas, framed

CATALOGUE NOTE

The face feels like some form of realization; one that is realistic and understandable at a glance. I won't claim other forms of realization, but it is at the very least a realization of something different from what we usually see.

Mao Yan

Born in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, Mao Yan graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1990. He currently lives in Nanjing and teaches at the Nanjing Art College. Mao Yan is most skilled in portraitures of a distinct style which he paints with a penetrative psychological sensitivity towards his sitter. He differs from other artists in that he abandoned of the realistic mode of depiction and excluded any material or formal details of the face and body. Instead, he sought to externalize the sitter's emotion and inner state of being. The most superb attribute of this piece lies in its strong sense of spiritual essence, infused with a transcendental form of dormant beauty.

61 by 50.5 cm. 24 by 19 7/8 in.