Artwork Description

Title: Strawberry Cake
Artist: Yang Fan
Date: 2005
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 39.4 × 31.5 in (100 × 80 cm)

1. Artwork Identification
Strawberry Cake by Yang Fan is a vibrant and meticulously rendered oil on canvas, depicting a smiling young woman with a yellow kerchief, holding a lollipop and a strawberry, while seated behind an ornate bowl overflowing with strawberries and stylized flower blossoms. With its pastel palette and precise detailing, the painting presents an image of cheerful femininity steeped in youthful exuberance. Executed in 2005, the work measures 100 by 80 cm and exemplifies Yang’s signature clean lines and smooth surfaces.

2. Artistic Style and Influences
Yang Fan’s aesthetic is closely aligned with the Chinese Neo-Pop art movement, which blends the visual language of commercial advertising, anime, and photographic realism. His works often emphasize idealized beauty, domestic fantasy, and kitsch pleasure through flat compositions and simplified contours. Strawberry Cake evokes the hyperreal charm of consumerist portraiture, echoing the soft surrealism found in works by artists like Liu Ye and Aya Takano.

3. Historical Context
Painted in 2005, Strawberry Cake belongs to a broader cultural moment in early 21st-century China when artists began exploring themes of commodified identity, surface beauty, and the psychological impacts of media saturation. Yang Fan’s subject—playfully poised and immaculately presented—suggests a constructed self-image shaped by aspirational narratives of consumption, sweetness, and innocence, all central to global pop culture.

4. Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation
The painting is in very good condition. The canvas is structurally sound, with no visible areas of abrasion, warping, or loss. The painted surface is pristine, with bright, consistent pigmentation throughout. No prior restorations or conservation interventions are noted.

6. Artistic Significance
Yang Fan's Strawberry Cake is emblematic of a generation of Chinese contemporary artists who engage critically with pop aesthetics and the cultural production of desire. Its immaculate surface and delightful imagery belie deeper tensions between consumerism and personal identity. This piece would be a vibrant and compelling addition to any collection focused on post-1990s Chinese contemporary art or international Neo-Pop figuration.