''Execution'' is a 1995 painting by

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

artist

Yue Minjun Yue Minjun (; born 1962) is a contemporary Chinese artist based in Beijing, China. He is best known for oil paintings depicting himself in various settings, frozen in laughter. He has also reproduced this signature image in sculpture, watercolour ...

. The piece was inspired by the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

, although the artist stated that the piece should not be viewed as depicting what happened at

Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananmen (" ...

.CNN Edition Oct 11 2007 world news.
'Execution' artist rejects Tiananmen label. Retrieved 10-14-2007. In 2007 it became the most expensive work sold by a Chinese contemporary artist.Thestaronline.com
Thestar Oct 13, 2007. Chinese painting sets sales record at London auction. Retrieved Oct 14, 2007.

Overview

Yue Minjun painted ''Execution'' in 1995 in a month. He sold the painting to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

art dealer Manfred Schoeni for $5,000. Trevor Simon, an investment banker, stumbled across the painting in 1996 in the back of a Hong Kong gallery. He convinced Schoeni to sell the piece for

HK$ The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cents or 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong and ...

250,000 /

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

32,200. The painting was then shipped from Hong Kong to London, where Simon stored it in a warehouse. Under the terms, the painting was to remain out of sight for five years in a warehouse. In 2007, ''Execution'' became the most expensive work of Chinese contemporary art, selling for £2.9 million /

5.9 million /

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

4.2 million at London's

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

. The art piece was billed by Sotheby's as "Among the most historically important paintings of the Chinese avant-garde ever to appear at auction." Simon called Yue a brave man for painting something so politically dangerous. The artist, Yue, denies that his paintings are a veiled criticism of his

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

or of Chinese society, and he does not believe his work will bring him trouble. The painting has been compared to Goya's ''

The Third of May 1808 ''The Third of May 1808'' (also known as or , or )The Museo del Prado entitles the work El 3 de mayo de 1808 en Madrid: los fusilamientos en la montaña del Príncipe Pío'' is a painting completed in 1814 by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, ...

'' and Manet's ''

The Execution of Emperor Maximilian ''The Execution of Emperor Maximilian'' is a series of paintings by Édouard Manet from 1867 to 1869, depicting the execution by firing squad of Emperor Maximilian I of the short-lived Second Mexican Empire. Manet produced three large oil pa ...

''.

References

{{reflist 1995 paintings Chinese paintings 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre Paintings about death