Lot 381: Rong, Ren 1960 Nanjing Pflanzenmensch.

1997. Acrylic on wood relief. 85 x 62 x 7cm. Verso signed, titled and dated: Chinese signature, Ren Rong, 'Pflanzenmensch', (notes on technique), 1997.1.

Having completed his education at the art college in Nanjing, Ren Rong attended the Acamdies of Art in Münster and Düsseldorf. Since then he has been active in China and Germany.
Around 1990 he discovered his individual means of expression - the "Plant Humans". The silhouettesque figurines combine calligraphic features of his home country with ornamental elements of Western art like those in the works by Matisse or Dröses. This motif appears in nearly all art categories he worked in: painting, sculpture, installations, silhouettes or woodcuts; integrated in, for example, photo collages or naturalistically painted landscapes; yet he lets it also speak for itself as an autonomous symbol. As manifold as his artistical language is, Ren Rong always critially reflects political, social and cultural circumstances in the Western as well as in the Eastern world. He understands his Plant Humans as symbols of human life in harmony with nature and at the same time as a metaphor of the human race's survival - not as individuals, but as a product of civilisation - in the present.