Saturday, January 15th 2022
Launch and signature of the new monograph
published by Editions Flammarion
during the opening of the exhibition Metamorphoses
3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris 8
In this monograph, which gives pride of place to his mature monumental works, the art historian Virginie- Perdrisot-Cassan analyzes this repertory of signs within which the universality of the motifs meets a dazzling variety of shapes, endless variations touching on femininity, animality, couple, desire, suffering, and finitude. Born of a sensual marriage between nature and style, the generosity of wood and the influence of the hand, Wang Keping's work incarnates the quest for truth of an artist with a destiny beyond the norm. A founding member of the first movement of Chinese avant-garde, political exile, upon his arrival in France, Wang Keping followed the path of pursuing a radical essentialization of shapes, in the footsteps of masters as diverse as the artists, film- makers and writers Qi Baishi, Picasso, Matisse, Brancusi, Beckett, Ionesco, Chaplin, and Zadkine.
The artist and activist Ai Weiwei gives him a vibrant tribute, showing his admiration for his elder's daring at the time of the Stars dissident exhibition in 1979, and celebrating the autonomy and integrity of creations by the man who is known as "The Master of Wood."
Wang Keping, éditions Flammarion, coll. Livres d'art, 2022, 224 p., price : 49 €
