With his 'Mask Series' which he began in 1994, Zeng Fanzhi broke the mold of contemporary Chinese painting, stretching its boundaries, and introducing the expression of self and introspective observations into what had been a traditionally realist representational art form. As his contemporaries produced works influenced by American Pop Art, and which were social and political commentaries on their present day Chinese society, Zeng broke with Chinese tradition by putting himself and his ruminations at the center of his works. The 'Mask Series' justly brought global fame and admiration Zeng's way, while opening up a whole new world of art to his Chinese viewers.

Contemporary Chinese artists are grounded in the realist tradition in every art college in China. As graduates they are masters with the realist brush. So the greatest challenge facing a young artist is to find their voice and to communicate successfully through their art. As Chinese society rushed headlong into modernization and openness in the 1990s, it was relatively easy for young artists to adopt one of the burgeoning accepted contemporary styles of 'Political Pop' or 'Cynical Realism', which had found great favor with Western audiences, and thus ensured a ready market for their works. Zeng Fanzhi, the explorer of souls and minds, could never have been satisfied with such formulaic production and commentary on society, and instead looked inwards and portrayed his own feelings.

The 'Mask Series' is a landmark in contemporary Chinese painting, one that resonates with viewers both at home and abroad. Zeng stared the series in 1994 just after he had moved to Beijing from Wuhan in Hubei province where he was born and raised. Moving from the provinces to Beijing was difficult and even somewhat traumatic as the warmth and camaraderie of his hometown was left behind, and he found himself isolated and lonely in a big city. Finding his new classmates and teachers to be cold, distant and unknowable, he was disturbed at the sense of isolation, aloneness and despair permeating relationships in the city. There was also a sense of treachery, as people put on a public show of friendliness, but were in reality hiding their true selves, as they jostled for social position and opportunity in the new society.

Zeng is a deeply observant artist, and the human being with all his frailties and fragilities, has been a consuming topic for Zeng since he first began to paint. The 'Mask Series' is born of his observations of the young urbanities he encountered in Beijing. It seemed everyone was wearing a mask, hiding their real selves. They were very concerned with the externals, how they dressed, how they looked, how they performed, how they met social norms, but they were ignoring and avoiding the internal, their deeper selves, their spiritual and psychological well-being, and such tension results in anxiousness, suffering and a feeling of being lost. It is this tension and pressure that Zeng has captured so successfully in his 'Mask Series' where he depicts persons either individually or in groups, dressed in tailored suits, reminiscent of straitjackets, posed stiffly and awkwardly, wearing a white mask. Their weird eyes stare vacantly, and as mirrors of the soul they reflect the true state of the protagonists' inner world.

Our painting 'Mask' from 2001, has a single man, alone and aloof, iconoclastically posed in the center of the painting. Depicted as suave and sophisticated in his tailored suit, his puzzled and perplexed stare, through his white mask, creates a sense of sadness and yearning. The cool exterior of the suit and mask is in stark contrast to the redness and fleshiness of the hands and exposed skin on the face. A powerful tension is built between a seemingly smooth exterior represented by the suit and mask, and a volatile interior exposed in the raw like flesh, especially in the exaggerated hands. The protagonist obsessed with presenting a surface calm, is in fact a bubbling cauldron of emotions beneath his veneers. And for a human being this denial of the true self, in Zeng's language, results in disjointedness, separation and ultimately deep suffering.

Zeng's depictions of wounded and hurting people are not total depictions of wretchedness and sadness. There is a self-conscious awareness about the protagonist in 'Mask', offering a hope for redemption. As an inwardly driven artist, Zeng is deeply attuned to the workings of his own psychology. Often his protagonists are self-images of his own inner turmoil. But Zeng is aware that deep thought and reflection can lead to new insights and improvements in inner wellbeing. As an introverted and sensitive child, Zeng had always felt isolated and alone. As a young artist he had left Wuhan because he felt that his works were not understood, and that people smiled gently, nodded their heads, and secretly thought he was crazy. On moving to Beijing, his found even more bitter isolation and disconnectedness with the individuals he encountered, but he also found an acceptance of his works and his thinking nature. So while suffering is deep and painful, hope and redemption are also possibilities.

A child of the Cultural Revolution he grew up surrounded by turmoil and upheaval. A sensitive child he withdrew into himself and developed a strongly introverted character. It is this part of his nature that so imbues his artistic output, lending powerful and strong emotional expression to his greatest works especially his 'Mask Series'. His discovery of European Expressionism as a student at Hubei College of Fine Arts was to give him the means to explore on canvas his personal life and emotions, and those of the people around him, whom he observed closely. As the most personal and individualistic of contemporary Chinese artists, his works resonate with passion, energy and feeling. 'Mask' beautifully captures Zeng's observations of an individual tortured and imposed upon by a society far more concerned with the display of social niceties and hiding of true inner motivations than in the full acceptance of the individual. In creating the 'Mask Series', Zeng has also created one of the most iconic symbols of modern day Chinese society, the masked individual, unknowable, aloof, disdainful, and ultimately tortured.