Artwork Description

Title: New Naked Girl
Artist: Zhu Fadong
Date: 2015
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 39.4 x 31.5 in (100 x 80 cm)

Artwork Identification
New Naked Girl is a compelling oil on canvas by Zhu Fadong, one of China’s most incisive and socially attuned contemporary artists. Measuring 100 by 80 centimeters, the work features a female nude rendered with unflinching clarity and psychological tension. Zhu’s figurative execution is raw yet deliberate, allowing subtle painterly gestures to suggest layers of vulnerability, exposure, and human complexity.

Artistic Style and Influences
While Zhu Fadong is best known for his conceptual and performance work, New Naked Girl reveals his painterly acuity and sensitivity to the human form. The composition evokes a realist sensibility informed by post-socialist critique—balancing technical control with an emotional undercurrent. The raw directness of the figure recalls elements of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), while its existential tone aligns with contemporaries such as Liu Xiaodong and Zhang Xiaogang, whose works similarly grapple with shifting identities in modern China.

Historical Context
Emerging in the wake of China’s Reform and Opening-Up period, Zhu Fadong’s practice consistently engages with themes of transformation, marginality, and dislocation. Though undated, New Naked Girl can be understood within this broader socio-historical frame—echoing the personal and societal ruptures that defined life in late-20th-century and early-21st-century China. The work refracts issues of gender, autonomy, and objectification, offering a potent counter-narrative to dominant portrayals of the female body in both traditional and commercial visual culture.

Provenance and Authenticity
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

Condition and Conservation
The painting is in good condition overall, with no visible losses or significant surface abrasions. The canvas remains taut, and the paint surface shows healthy luminosity and texture.

Artistic Significance
New Naked Girl is a rare and arresting example of Zhu Fadong’s figurative work, standing apart from his more commonly recognized conceptual pieces. As such, it offers collectors a unique insight into the artist’s range and his ability to articulate psychological intensity through traditional media. The piece holds critical and market significance, reflecting both Zhu’s ongoing interrogation of Chinese contemporary society and his deftness across disciplines. It will appeal to collectors interested in socially engaged art, post-1989 Chinese contemporary practice, and figuration at the edge of realism and critique.