This very large work is probably the largest painting ever made
during this period of early abstraction produced in China in the 1980's ( 1978-1992).
Interview with Wang Peng :
" In the late 1980s, paintings without figurative images were absolutely not permitted by Chinese art education. So I began the study of abstract painting from 1988 to 1993, after graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. I completed more than 30 abstract paintings during the five year period. I tried not to be influenced by the socialist/realist painting techniques, not to depend on the real figurative image, but using only abstract language to compose the picture. This painting was one of the largest. There were two reasons that the painting has been divided into four sections ~ one reason was that I was referencing the traditional Chinese form of presentation; another reason was that the door of the studio was not big enough to "by-pass" the painting in one large piece."
during this period of early abstraction produced in China in the 1980's ( 1978-1992).
Interview with Wang Peng :
" In the late 1980s, paintings without figurative images were absolutely not permitted by Chinese art education. So I began the study of abstract painting from 1988 to 1993, after graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. I completed more than 30 abstract paintings during the five year period. I tried not to be influenced by the socialist/realist painting techniques, not to depend on the real figurative image, but using only abstract language to compose the picture. This painting was one of the largest. There were two reasons that the painting has been divided into four sections ~ one reason was that I was referencing the traditional Chinese form of presentation; another reason was that the door of the studio was not big enough to "by-pass" the painting in one large piece."
Wang Peng was also the artist who enacted the very first-known performance work in China.
In 1984 he covered himself with black ink and made 7 large imprints of his nude body on white cloth Performance is documented in a Tate Liverpool exhibition in 2007
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/real-thing-contemporary-art-china/real-thing-exhibition-guide-7