Lot
16
Lu Decheng
Engraving, mezzotint, aquatint and chine-bonded, 2010
60 x 40 cm
Edition 1/15
Estimate
$500
The work Lu Decheng is included in the suite of engravings entitled Visages de Tiananmen, portraying the principle protagonists implicated in the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Lu Decheng is one of the three Chinese dissidents who, on May 23, 1989, defaced a giant portrait of Mao using eggs filled with red pigment.
Biographical note
Trained as an art historian, René Donais has practised copperplate engraving for nearly 15 years. Impassioned by human and animal anatomy, he has a marked interest in the bizarre. Cut-away diagrams, anamorphoses, monstrous embryos, and bearded women all feature among his graphic works. Donais has been a member of Atelier Circulaire since 1998. He was awarded first prize at the Biennale d’estampes Voir Grand in 2008. Donais favours the mezzotint technique, an etching process particular in that it begins with a rich, velvety black screen from which clear and semi-tinted zones emerge. Mezzotint allows the artist to generate extremely subtle forms, thus lending a unique quality to his works.