Yue Minjun Warriors Stand in Formation at the Milwaukee Art Museum

Written by Rosiland Samuelson Saturday, 17 March 2012 23:12

MILWAUKEE, WIS.- The Milwaukee Art Museum presents the installation Chinese Contemporary Warriors by world-renowned contemporary artist Yue Minjun, in conjunction with its Summer of CHINA series of exhibitions. This latest addition to the ambitious CHINA lineup will be on view through December 2011. Yue Minjun, a leading contemporary artist based in Beijing, China, is best known for his self-portrait paintings. Yue casts himself in a variety of large-scale compositions, and always with a grotesquely wide-mouthed, laughing face. Referencing the utopian propaganda of earlier Chinese Social realist paintings, his work creates allegories critical of the Chinese government in works that are humorously laced with cynicism.

“The work of Yue Minjun invites exploration into the relationship between contemporary art and current issues in modern Chinese society,” said Brady Roberts, chief curator of the Milwaukee Art Museum. “Yue provides another perspective to what currently comprises the Summer of CHINA experience.” 

“Chinese Contemporary Warriors is a sculptural installation that continues in the same manner of satire,” said Roberts. “Mindlessly happy in their uniformity, the compliant citizens of this absurd army recall the famed terra-cotta warriors from Xian. Rather than the serious visages of the warriors, however, these figures convey ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.’”

Chinese Contemporary Warriors is currently on display in the Museum’s Contemporary Galleries on the Main Level.

The Milwaukee Art Museum collects and preserves art, presenting it to the community as a vital source of inspiration and education.

20,000 works of art. 300,000+ visitors a year. 120 years of collecting art. From its roots in Milwaukee’s first art gallery in 1888, the Museum has grown today to be an icon for Milwaukee and a resource for the entire state.The 341,000-square-foot Museum includes the War Memorial Center (1957) designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, the Kahler Building (1975) by David Kahler, and the Quadracci Pavilion (2001) created by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

Central to the Museum’s mission is its role as a premier educational resource, with educational programs that are among the largest in the nation, involving classes, tours, and a full calendar of events for all ages. Visit : http://mam.org/

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