{"id":8319,"date":"2026-01-10T08:25:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T00:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/?p=8319"},"modified":"2026-01-10T08:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T00:25:15","slug":"%e3%80%8clook-at-the-picture-and-talk-about-the-painting%e3%80%8dguardian-autumn-auctions-the-artistic-expression-of-existence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/?p=8319","title":{"rendered":"\u300cLook at the Picture and Talk about the Painting\u300dGuardian Autumn Auctions: : The Artistic Expression of Existence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=&#8221;https:\/\/www.bilibili.com\/video\/BV11h1TB5EhX?t=0.6&#8243;]<div class=\"vcex-spacing\" style=\"height:30px\"><\/div>[vc_column_text]\n&#8220;Existence precedes essence&#8221; &#8211; this philosophical proposition by Sartre has dropped a thought-provoking bombshell in the Chinese art world.<\/p>\n<p>In April 1980, news of Sartre&#8217;s death reached us. Inspired by Sartre&#8217;s thoughts, Zhong Ming decided to put Sartre&#8217;s portrait on the canvas, but faced a unique creative dilemma: how to depict Sartre&#8217;s left eye with strabismus? Direct depiction would be disrespectful, while deliberately avoiding it would violate the truth.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Zhong Ming chose a philosophical approach, using a horizontal composition to place Sartre in the lower right corner of the canvas. The printmaking texture was used to weaken the realistic details, while a cup was ingeniously drawn in the upper left corner. This seemingly simple composition was actually a delicate interpretation of existentialist philosophy. The cup being created to hold water is &#8220;essence preceding existence&#8221;, while a person defining themselves through actions is &#8220;existence preceding essence&#8221;. Through this visual contrast, Zhong Ming transformed abstract philosophical thinking into concrete artistic language, and named the work &#8220;He Is Himself &#8211; Sartre&#8221;. This work not only challenged the then &#8220;leader and workers, peasants, and soldiers&#8221; as the main characters in the creation, but also embodied the core proposition of existentialist philosophy.<\/p>\n<p>This work, which sparked nationwide controversy and was collected by Sartre&#8217;s partner, Beauvoir for life, is about to be featured in the &#8220;Contemporary Art Special Session&#8221; of the 2025 Guardian Autumn Auctions, along with the masterpieces of contemporary artists such as Yu Youhan and Zhou Chunya.<\/p>\n<p>This auction is worth looking forward to, as it is not only an acknowledgment of the value of an artwork, but also a tribute to a spirit &#8211; the existentialist spirit that believes that people can create meaning through their choices and actions. This spirit is extremely precious in any era.<\/p>\n<p>The tea for today is all gone. Next time, I&#8217;ll brew a fresh pot and enjoy art with you again.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=&#038;#8221&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mr-shan","post_format-post-format-video","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8321,"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8319\/revisions\/8321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mr-shan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}