Zeng Fanzhi belongs to the generation of a watershed era in the history of China. He was born in 1964, and remembers the cultural revolution, and also the feeling of social control. But by the time of artistic awakening in the country in the 1980s, he was still too young. This decade, the future artist spent in his native city of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province. Local art Academy took on the painting faculty of only eight students every four years. Having missed the first chance, Zeng worked in a print shop, waiting for the next.
The early work of Zeng, exploring inner psychological space, attracted the attention of local critics and curators. In the thesis work, he abandoned the traditional images of peasants and shepherds from the rural periphery of China. Instead, the artist created a triptych inspired by the hospital across from his student apartment. Composition based on Western religious paintings radiated nervous tension Prodigy-painter, trapped in a turbulent society.
In January 1993, the work of Zeng Fanzhi was included in the exhibition "New Chinese art: post 1989", Hong Kong. Then the artist moved to Beijing, where she won fame with a series of "Masks" that reflect the alienation of people in the affluent and fast-changing city. In his opinion, people in the Chinese capital hid their true identity from each other and from themselves.
The most expensive painting of Chinese"The last supper" (2001), a replica of the eponymous Leonardo da Vinci. This monumental work of "Christ" and the eleven "apostles" to embody the Communist ideals around their necks is tied a red tie, and only "Judas" is yellow "Imperial".