Su Xingpin’s Toast
Born in Jinig, Inner Mongolia, in 1960, Su Xinping belongs to a generation of Chinese artists that gained recognition in the late 80’s and the early 90’s. Although he was first acknowledged as a printmaker due to a series of lithographs that recreated scenes and characters from his native Inner Mongolia, Su already has a long and successful career as an oil painter behind him.
His current exhibition in the He Xiangning Museum gathers about twenty oil paintings made between 2005 and 2008, paintings belonging both to his Toasting Series, which gives its name to the exhibition, and his later Landscape Series.
Approximately half of the paintings belong to the so-called Toasting Series, where the images of bare-chested men, toasting with glasses and cups of beer, repeats itself once and again. Although there are some exceptions, most of the works in this series take us into a hellish atmosphere, dominated by dark red and ocher-colored hazy backgrounds. It seems to me that a certain mockery is intended and accomplished through the poses and the attitudes of these men, whose rigid position (right hand holding the beer with the arm extended upwards or to the front, left arm straight, stuck to the body) often resembles a military salute. It’s not difficult to imagine the hand that holds the beer being extended with the palm downwards or clenched in a fist. Is Su Xingpin suggesting some kind of connection between beer and totalitarianism? That I wouldn’t dare to answer.
Apart from a couple of portraits of diverse nature, the other half belongs to Su’s later Landscape Series. Here the images are more peaceful. Red has been almost completely replaced by ocher colours and wherever a human figure appears, he will be sitting down or in a more relaxed position. The landscapes re-create those lonely open grounds that lie around any industrial area. Faded in the background, we see the shapes of factories, smoking chimneys, and lampposts, but, in close-up, the wasteland always dominates the composition.
Su Xingpin’s style is distinct and adds consistency to the whole collection through the misty, almost Turnerian, backgrounds and the particular shape of his human figures, those big headed, bare-chested men of exaggerated features that look a bit like caricatures. His work appeals to the viewer with its apparent simplicity and the warmth of its colors
The He Xiangning Museum provides a pleasant space to enjoy the works, although it looks a bit abandoned (only one wing of the building was open to the public last Sunday) The entrance (20 RMB,) might be a little overpriced given the size of the exhibition, and, as usual, there aren’t leaflets or explanations in English.
Su Xinping's will be on display until May 4th in the He Xiangning Museum.
More images from the "Toasting Series":
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