Zeng Fanzhi: Near and Far/Now and Then

Astonishing new works from a painter often considered China's greatest living artist

Published with Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

One of the most discussed exhibitions during the 2024 Venice Biennale, by renowned Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi (born 1964), is captured in this sumptuous volume. Shedding light on Zeng's ambitious practice of redefining the abstract, this book features two recent bodies of work--oil paintings and works on handmade paper. Emerging from the artist's decades of research in color theory, Zeng's new oil paintings draw on and challenge Impressionist and pointillist practices, with layers of brushwork creating figurative elements that are readily recognizable from afar but dissolve when viewed up close. In a world inundated with machine-rendered images, Zeng's boundary-pushing experiments inspire viewers to experience the beauty and time-honored art and craft of painting. Zeng's works on handmade paper, rendered in ink, graphite, chalk, gold dust and other mineral pigments, point to a new direction in his practice.