Yan Pei-Ming is a Chinese painter, born in 1960 in Shanghai, living in France since 1982.
Famous for his epic sized paintings often of famous people, for instance Ma Zedong, Obama and Bruce Lee
predominantly painted impasto in monochrome or in red, created using big brushes with obvious evidence of rapid brush strokes offering a sense of movement like wind blowing away the surface of the image as if it was made from lose dust only.
Obama 2008
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned 2010 Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art
My initial reaction is commerciality, many of his paintings seem similar in style, his portraits seemingly unemotional or thought provoking. His work in red is more reactive, perhaps just the subject matter is sometimes more risqué but also his use of the vibrant, daring colour evoking a stronger response. However as a portrait painter I don’t find his work either fascinating and in fact I have no desire to revisit his works. I’d hope this wasn’t the case if I were see the works in reality, I’m sure even just the size would evoke a much stronger emotion from me.
OCA Painting 1 Learning Log 