Artwork Description

Title: Time is the Mind of the Ocean
Artist: Yan Yi
Date: 2015
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 47.2 x 47.2 in (120 x 120 cm)

1. Artwork Identification
Yan Yi’s Time is the Mind of the Ocean is a striking oil painting that envelops the viewer in a dreamlike underwater cosmos. Executed on a square-format canvas, the work features a surreal figure—half-submerged, half-transfigured—surrounded by a delicate tangle of organic branches and rippling fluid forms. Rendered in opalescent shades of lavender, rose, and turquoise, the composition is ethereal yet richly textured, with paint application that simulates both translucence and depth.

2. Artistic Style and Influences
The painting blends surrealism with lyrical abstraction, anchored in contemporary Chinese visual poetics. Yan Yi’s style evokes comparisons to Symbolist and fantastical figuration, with echoes of Odilon Redon’s mysticism and Zdzisław Beksiński’s dreamscapes, though with a gentler, more aqueous sensibility. The immersive color palette and metamorphic anatomy underscore a deeply personal visual language that traverses the boundary between reality and imagination.

3. Historical Context
Painted in 2015, Time is the Mind of the Ocean emerges from a period when contemporary Chinese painters were increasingly exploring inner mythologies and emotional symbolism, in contrast to earlier eras marked by overt sociopolitical commentary. Yan Yi’s work belongs to a generation of artists reconnecting with metaphysical and spiritual inquiry through oil painting, invoking psychological narratives through a distinctively sensual and otherworldly aesthetic.

4. Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation
The artwork is in very good condition. The canvas is structurally sound and well-stretched, with no visible abrasions or losses. The surface retains its original color vibrancy and textural complexity, including areas of impasto and fine linear detailing. No conservation measures are currently required.

6. Artistic Significance
Time is the Mind of the Ocean occupies a unique place within Yan Yi’s oeuvre as a poetic meditation on memory, consciousness, and transformation. The painting’s imaginative resonance and atmospheric complexity enhance its value both aesthetically and intellectually. As contemporary collectors increasingly seek emotionally evocative and technically refined works, this painting stands as a compelling example of introspective surrealist abstraction within the broader narrative of 21st-century Chinese art.