Yan Pei-Ming. Painting Histories in Florence

Another major monographic exhibition is underway at Palazzo Strozzi until 3 September 2023, and this time it brings us in contact with over thirty works by Chinese artist, Yan Pei-Ming: Yan Pei-Ming. Painting Histories.
Born and raised in Shanghai, he emigrated to France at the age of 20, enrolling at the École des Beaux-Arts in Dijon pursuing his dream of studying art. He will later also study at the French Academy at Villa Medici in Rome, but will then continue to live in France, where he still has his studio.

He soon become the promoter of a dialogue between East and West, reflecting deeply on today's painting, and combining history with the contemporary.
The monumental works, monochromatic works where red, black and blue prevail, often take photographic images from newspaper covers, cinema, or famous works from the history of art as models. Most often, they represent portraits, animals symbolic of Chinese culture such as the dragon and the tiger and famous people. The subjects are the most varied, all represented with vigorous and material-rich brushstrokes: ranging from the hanging bodies of Mussolini and Claretta Petacci in piazzale Loreto to the Crucifixion according to Matthew, from Vladimir Putin to Zelensky, from Jean-Paul Marat to Bruce Lee, up to the artist's own mother.
The actor Bruce Lee is one of the subjects most frequently painted by the Chinese artist. Beloved movie icon, Bruce Lee tried to challenge racism and change the stereotypical image that the Western world had of the Chinese and Asians in general. With his athletic physique, charisma, American-style haircut and attire, he managed to show the West that the Asian man was combative, talented and attractive.

The canvas that perhaps best represents Yan Pei-Ming, his experience and his values is the one that revisits The Death of Marat (1793) by Jacques-Louis David. In fact, this seems to be the perfect merging of the artist's China, the France in which he studied and lived, the love for art history and the interest in recounting History and its protagonists.
The message becomes more intimate and personal, however, with the work that portrays Chen Guo-mei, Yan Pei-Ming’s mother, who died in 2018 and to whome he dedicated a series of monumental paintings.