Rong Rong - Contemporary Art London Thursday, June 21, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Private collection, New Jersey

  • Exhibited

    Beijing, Tui-Transfiguration, Factory 798, Sep 2003

  • Literature

    H. Wu, ed., Tui-Transfiguration, Beijing, 2004, pp. 63 and 65 (ill.)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Rong Rong’s Ruin Pictures consist of the artist’s photographs of old calendars, posters, or other preexisting images of movie stars from his childhood. The actress featured in the present lot is Maggie Cheung, Hong Kong’s most famous thespian. The artist grew up during the Cultural Revolution, during which most movies and pop music from Hong Kong were considered obscene and strictly banned in mainland China. As a boy, the artist was fascinated by these often larger-than-life pictures of celebrities and their forbidden art. His documents of these weathered celebrity posters amid the ruins of Beijing’s demolished houses is a nostalgic paen both to the passing era of adolescent idolatry and the demise of Beijing’s traditional architecture.

111

Ruin Pictures - 1996 No. 5

1996
Black and white photograph in artist's metal frame.
59 x 39 3/8 in. (149.9 x 100 cm).

Estimate
£4,000 - 6,000 

Sold for £4,560

Contemporary Art

22 June 2007, 4pm & 5pm
London