Shen Yaoyi’s Long March Classic Fetches US $6.4 Million.docVIP

Shen Yaoyi?s Long March Classic Fetches US $6.4 Million IT is not unusual for old masters? paintings to fetch RMB10 million or more at auction these days. The same is fast be- coming true of contemporary Chinese artworks. Bidding for Shen Yaoyi?s Revolutionary Ideals Higher than Heaven at the China Guardian 2012 auction of Chinese oil paintings and sculptures started at RMB 8.5 million. The masterpiece finally sold for RMB 40.25 million (about US $6.4 million) – the highest-ever price for any of his works. Shen Yaoyi was born in Shanghai in 1943 and graduated from the Engraving Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1966. Having taught at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts and Renmin University?s Xu Beihong School of Arts, Shen is now a board member of the Chinese Artists Association and vice chairman of the Beijing Artists Association. Shen was in his 30s in 1975 when he started work on the 185 cm by 375 cm oil painting Revolutionary Ideals Higher than Heaven, which he finished in 1976. The world famous Long March -- the Chinese Red Army?s 8,000-mile military retreat which took from 1934 to 1935 -- was the main theme of his artworks. Shen spent three months retracing the Long March route from Jiangxi Province in southeast China to Shaanxi Province in northwest China. Upon his return he created the graphic novel Following Chairman Mao on the Long March and started work on the oil paintings Revolutionary Ideals Higher than Heaven and Start of the Long March (part of the National Art Museum of China collection). The romantic effect of Shen?s realist technique and use of contrasting light and shadow singles out Revolutionary Ideals Higher than Heaven as a masterpiece. The oil painting shows Mao Zedong giving a rousing speech that obviously heartens his follow soldiers and acts as a beacon of warmth amid the arduous toil of their journey to safety in the same way as the blazing bonfire around which they gathe