Wang Guangyi: Obscured Existence

The works by one of the most important Chinese contemporary artists, considered one of the symbols of new China.

The book presents a selection of paintings never exhibited in the West, made from 2013 to today; it includes the series Daily Life (2013-2014), Ritual (2015), Obscured Existence (2018-2020), and The Shadow of Memory (2021), together with self-portraits and other paintings.

Published on the occasion of his first solo exhibition in Italy (Florence, Palazzo Pitti, Gallerie degli Uffizi), the book includes essays by Eike Schmidt and Demetrio Paparoni, as well as an interview with the artist by Elio Cappuccio.

The works of Wang Guangyi, who participated in the Venice Biennale in 2013, are in the permanent collections of public museums worldwide. This includes the new M+ in Hong Kong, museums in Shenzhen, Guangdong, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Beijing, the Tate Modern in London, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum Ludwig in Aachen, and many others.

Eike Schmidt, Director of the Gallerie degli Uffizi, states: "Wang Guangyi, an internationally renowned artist, reinterprets collective imaginations - and in particular, some works from the Uffizi - with eyes that look beyond the image, beyond the boundaries of visual and metaphorical languages, to analyse the human condition in relation to transcendence."

Born in Harbin in Manchuria, northern China, in 1957, Wang Guangyi became one of the great stars of contemporary Chinese art through his Great Criticism series. He analysed the effects of political and commercial propaganda, with special reference to the Cold War, and examined the relationship with the Divine. His work is also rooted in Kant's aesthetics, serving as a fundamental reference point.