Yongbo Zhao: Das Grosse Lachen / Hearty Laughter

Born in Manchuria in 1964, Zhao began painting as a child, studied and taught in China until, in his late twenties, he became enamored with the Western European artistic tradition. Rejecting the social realism that dominated the art of late twentieth-century China, Zhao emigrated to Germany where he immersed himself in the styles and techniques of such painters as Rubens, Boucher, Goya, Courbet, and the Pre-Raphaelites. Color illustrations of his hypnotic, phantasmagoric, and often satirical works are reproduced in stunning clarity in this book along with insightful commentary that reveals why Zhao is one of the most fascinating artists to emerge from contemporary China.