Ru Xiaofan

Ru Xiaofan is a Chinese artist born in 1954, during the Cultural Revolution - at the time of the hundred flowers, an important subject for the artist - living in France since 1983. Arrived in France after 5 years of studies at the Beaux-Arts from Nanjing, he entered the Beaux-Arts in Paris, from which he graduated in 19861,2. His first solo exhibition in France took place in 1987. Ru Xiao-Fan began to produce his first paintings in Indian ink. “At that time, I was looking for my way. I was trying to establish a link between my learning of Chinese calligraphy and the history of Western art, ”explains the artist. One could believe when seeing these paintings that it is a feast of objects, a feast of the senses. The colors are abundant and vivid. But it is not. Behind the beauty of the veil hides a horrible bride. “From 1996 to 2000, Ru Xiao-Fan produced his series of Hundred Flowers, 100 oils on canvas, in reference to the artistic and political censorship during the Cultural Revolution, which pushed him to leave China. The artist invents his own floral language. His paintings show flowers as anthropomorphic, in groups or as extensions of the human body. His smooth and crisp painting features characters with objects because of which they lose all identity.