Gong Lilong

Oil on canvas
71 x 52.5 cm. 28 x 20 5/8 in.
Signed in Chinese and dated on lower right
‘Classical Genre Art’： The Artistic Creation of Gong Lilong
Gong Lilong was born in 1956. In 1982， he graduated from the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts with major in Oil Painting. The talented Gong won several prizes in the 80s and has been teaching in his alma mater since 1994. Gong has taken a different path in his career. Initially he depicted rural life， in which he created an image of farmers in sturdy built with exaggerated expressions， which gave his works a sense of surrealistic absurdity that sets him apart from other contemporary painters from the northeast China. Since 2000， Gong switched the theme to city life in which distinctive characters in the fast-changing Chinese society were depicted.
The artistic language of Gong carries a rich oriental mood and individuality. The body blocks painted with Realistic techniques and Romantic tone have the toughness of Chinese sculptures. Colours which are commonly found in the Chinese folk art were applied with heavy yet simple brushstrokes to render the romance of love. The space of the painting is further simplified to create a poetic atmosphere similar to that of Marc Chagall.
The world is in Your Arm depicts an intimate moment of a couple. The full-filled composition， textured lines and folk-art colours project a strong vitality. Gong’s artistic vocabulary precisely describes the passionate moment of the lovers and the beauty of human body so as to point out the emptiness and alienation in the urban society.
Gong has been experimenting with his paintings the idea of ‘incorporating the ethnic customs into the order of Western Classicism’. Absurdity has freed his paintings from the restraints of the geographical symbols of genre art. The focus on sociality through his unique personal perspective and unconventional practices reveals the reality of human nature at the historical and cultural level. It hasn’t only showed his observation on real live