In an interesting attempt at bringing art appreciation into the wider society, a project named “Art for the masses” was born. Here curators invited five famous Chinese modern artists to join and combine their artworks with toys. The five artists Yue Minjun, Zhou Chunya, Liu Ye, Zhou Tiehai, Jin Nu are known for their ironically artistic ideas and their academic styles make their works different from popular culture, most of which can only be seen in museums or galleries.
Born in Heilongjiang Province in 1962 and a graduate from the department of fine arts of Hebei Normal University, Yue Minjun is one of the most important painters in the genre of Cynical Realism. This toy is created based on Yue’s portrait. The toy is grinning from ear to ear and covering its eyes with its hands; you can not only feel humor but also grief from its big smile; it seemed as if the toy laughs at the ridiculous world and doesn’t want to see any grief. The Yue Min Jun toy is specially designed by the famous KAWS. It has his trademark, the “XX” sign on the toy to represent his element.
Born in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province in 1984, Jin Nu, who is a student of the department of sculpture of China Central Academy of Fine Arts is one of the most noticeable artists from the 1980s in China. Her works are characterized by sentimental feelings with fairy tales featuring prominently. In this instance, Jin Nu uses the image of the perfect mermaid from one of Hans Christian Anderson’s fables where the main character abandoned her beautiful voice in search for love and later incarnated into sea foam for her beloved prince’s happiness. Based on this fable, we see this great imagination on the art toy created by this post 80s generation who live without the historical baggage. The toy depicts a girl envied at the glamorous tail of a mermaid; she killed the shark and put on shark’s tail to accomplish her beauty. By this art toy, Jin Nu describes the idea that the shark represents a huge force against herself, she has to break down everything in pursuit of the tranquil extremity and purity inside her mind.
Zhou Tiehai was born in Shanghai in 1966 and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University. This toy is a camel wearing a red cheongsam with sunglasses on its face; this kind of dress-up is just the appearance of Shanghai women in Zhou’s eyes. Red slippers, red hair and a modern tattoo present a strong visual effect featuring the toy with the characteristics of a modern Shanghai woman.
Born in Chongqing municipality in 1955 and a graduate from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Zhou Chunya is acknowledged as the best painter for his mastery of colors. His works usually combine expressionism with Chinese tradition, conveying his feelings by the colors and objects in his paintings. The most famous work is the green dog series, which is created to commemorate his dead dog Heigen. With different figures and bold colors, the green dog toy is made of fluff and feels so real once held in the hand. They are believed to be not only the muse in Zhou’s memory but also a lovely friend of the masses.
Born in Beijing in 1964, Liu Ye graduated from Berlin University of the Arts, Germany with a master’s degree. Influenced by traditional Chinese ideas and western masters, his works cover traditional eastern oils to western abstract paintings. He is skilled at painting lovely cartoon images to reveal the evilness and contradictions hidden under a beautiful appearance. This toy is a woman teacher wearing a green skirt with a ferule tightly held in her hands and an evil expression hidden in her naïve face making it look like a combination of an angel and a devil.
