First monograph.
The catalogue accompanying three summer 2003 Yan Pei-Ming exhibitions. The
Consortium originated of the idea: to show the painter from his beginnings in France to his rise on the international scene (Australia at the National Gallery of Canberra, Shanghai and Canton for the "Year of France" in China...). This publication presents the crux of Ming's production and underlines his penchant for painting in series, as testifiedby the images taken in his various studios and shows.
Yan Pei-Ming (born 1960 in Shanghai) is a Franco-Chinese
painter based in Dijon, France. He is best known for his immense, and almost exclusively monochrome,
portraits that draw upon Chinese cultural history and Western portraiture tradition. Some of his most acclaimed portraits depict the figures of Mao Zedong, Bruce Lee and Barack Obama. Alongside and against these public figures, Pei-Mings' portraits extend to those of his father as well as himself.
At the age of 19, Yan Pei-Ming decided to move to France where he enrolled in the prestigious École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Dijon. In 1986 he graduated, achieving rapid success with his expressive, portrait-dominated œuvre. His paintings are executed with energy and imagination, consisting of expressive brushstrokes and a predominantly monochrome palette with an occasional appearance of dark red.
In 2003, he gained international recognition at the Venice Biennale. Six years later, his work was acquisitioned by the Louvre where he exhibiteda collection of portraits that sought to convey his personal perspective on Leonardo da Vinci's
Mona Lisa.
