Xiao Hong has received widespread critical acclaim for his Intellectual Youth series which he began in 2003. The artist puts to use his background in Chinese mural painting to create a fusion of the old and the new, at once representing the past and the present with his striking depictions of Chinese adolescents.
Xiao Hong’s Intellectual Youth series is a collection of portraits featuring China’s current population of young men and women. These individuals are painted in vivid, monochromatic hues which seem to represent the vibrancy of modern youth. Their faces have an almost translucent quality and reflected upon their features is a range of scenes from China’s illustrious history. Images of various events and people, from peasant farmers to revolutionary heroes, are molded and shaped to the contours of their faces and become features, like freckles or moles.
The youth of China today have more opportunities than any generation before them and what is more, they have the freedom and ability to fulfill their individual potentials. The images reflected in the faces of Xiao Hong’s subjects seem to act as reminders that today’s younger generations are in this fortuitous position as a result of centuries of history. They cannot avoid being influenced by the events that they were not witness to, but which were destined to shape their lives and define their characters.
The present lot is a fine representation of the Intellectual Youth series. The subject is a young girl, perhaps in her early teens, her youth being accentuated by her pigtails and fresh face. She is painted in the vibrant, predominantly monochromatic hues which are typical of Xiao Hong’s style. Reflected in her face are those formative events in Chinese history that will no doubt have a profound effect on the girl as she grows up in modern day China.