DSL Magazine: Issue 6

Yan Pei-Ming (b.1960) revisited David’s painting for a specific exhibition in Qatar in 2012. It dealt with current painting political assassinations but the artist chose to refer to the past to confront two approaches for painting History. David was a very engaged artist at his time and he deeply influenced society and art history. Yan depicts him as a genius. For him, the question of the exhaustion of the Western model as well as that of its domination on China is not essential: men continuously renew themselves. What matters more is the permanence of great works such as The Death of Marat , which is and always will be inescapable. The artist draws much of his inspiration from history painting in order to reflect our times. According to him, history repeats itself: men will not change, and there will be always wars between them as it is part of their nature. The artist stands as an observer and expresses the fears and suffering, violence and cruelty from the actual society. His paintings reflect his inner and deep feelings as well as his vision of the world, projected like a scream on the canvas. For him, Chinese art is an art of copying. Yet some evolution can occur, just as it occurred for him and for other Chinese artists who came after the show in Paris Les Magiciens de la Terre in 1989. He does not feel much influenced by Chinese painting, being more interested in Painting in its broadest sense.