Серия "Маски" №26 1995

Zeng Fanzhi made this large painting, Серия "Маски" №26, with oil on canvas. The ochre background feels kind of oppressive, right? And then these two figures… or is it one figure doubled?… sitting side by side. There’s such a raw, exposed quality, especially with those red hands and feet, and the mouths open in what could be a scream, or maybe a laugh? I’m thinking about how Zeng Fanzhi built up this image, layer by layer. Imagine him, pushing the paint around, wiping it away, letting the figures emerge through a process of addition and subtraction. Are they trapped or are they performing? It’s interesting, too, how the hands seem so much bigger and more detailed than the faces. Like, maybe those gestures are what really matter here. And the masks—are they hiding something, or revealing something? Maybe it's a bit of both, which is what makes painting so compelling—this dance between showing and concealing. Like de Kooning said, “Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure.” Yeah, that feels right.