Yan Pei-Ming (Simplified Chinese: 严培明; pinyin: yán péimíng) is a Chinese painter born in 1960 in Shanghai. Since 1982 he has lived in Dijon, France. His most famous paintings are "epic-sized" portraits of Mao Zedong worked out in black and white or red and white. He works with big brushes, and his paintings are brought to life by the rapid brush strokes which structure the picture space.[1]
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Yan Pei-Ming was born in Shanghai in 1960, and was the second of four children. He grew up during the Cultural Revolution, and started to paint in his spare time. He applied for admission to the Shanghai Art & Design School, but was rejected due to his stutter.[2] In 1980 he left Shanghai for France, where he enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, graduating in 1999.
Yan Pei-Ming has become known for his "epic-sized" portraits, including works featuring Mao Zedong,[3] Bruce Lee[4] and his father.[2]
In 2009, Yan Pei-Ming had solo exhibitions at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; the San Francisco Art Institute; and the Musée du Louvre. On February 10, 2009, it was announced that The Funeral of Mona Lisa will go on display at The Louvre on February 12, 2009 until May 18, 2009 in the room next to the original Mona Lisa.[5] His first solo exhibition in the United States was displayed at David Zwirner in New York, May 2007.[6] Group exhibitions include the Venice Biennale in 1995 and 2003; the Sevilla Biennale in 2006; the Istanbul Biennial in 2007, among others.
Public collections holding works by Yan Pei-Ming include the Centre Georges Pompidou; the Honolulu Academy of Arts; the National Gallery of Australia; the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; the Museum Ludwig; and the Shanghai Art Museum.