Artwork Description

Title: The Tree
Artist: Yue Zheng
Date: 2012
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 90 x 120 cm

1. Artwork Identification
The Tree by Yue Zheng is a symbolically charged oil painting that presents a solitary table rooted firmly into an earthy landscape, with its legs transforming seamlessly into tree roots. Atop the table sits a potted bonsai, echoing the natural theme. The tableau is rendered with a soft, dreamlike palette of purples, browns, and oranges, creating a surreal landscape where the lines between natural and constructed, cultivated and wild, begin to blur.

2. Artistic Style and Influences
The painting leans toward surrealism and metaphysical symbolism, with overtones reminiscent of Magritte or de Chirico, where familiar objects are recast in uncanny settings. Yue Zheng’s brushwork combines realism in form with abstraction in mood and color, reinforcing the dreamlike ambiguity. The bonsai tree—a traditional symbol of cultivation and control—is juxtaposed with the raw, rooting force of nature extending beneath the table.

3. Historical Context
Completed in 2012, The Tree reflects ongoing conversations in Chinese contemporary art surrounding identity, tradition, and nature’s endurance amidst modern constructs. The rooted table could be interpreted as a metaphor for ancestral legacy or cultural foundations in a shifting, uncertain world.

4. Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation
The painting is in very good condition with no visible signs of damage, warping, or discoloration. The surface retains its full tonal range and texture.

6. Artistic Significance
Yue Zheng’s The Tree stands out as a compelling meditation on rootedness, growth, and the dualities of nature and artifice. Through a quiet but powerful visual metaphor, the piece invites contemplation on stability, heritage, and the delicate balance between manmade and organic realms.