Artwork Description

Title: One of the Drama-Dream Life Series
Artist: Ma Yue
Date: 2006
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 63.0 x 51.2 in (160 x 130 cm)

1. Artwork Identification
This striking oil painting by Ma Yue is a part of his Drama-Dream Life series, a body of work that blurs the boundary between fantasy and nostalgia through the hyper-stylized portraiture of female figures. The subject’s face—rendered in soft monochrome—is juxtaposed with an enveloping halo of vivid pinks, giving the composition an ethereal, almost surreal quality. Her stylized makeup and period hairstyle evoke the glamorous image of mid-20th-century Chinese film stars, anchoring the piece in a world of cultural memory and cinematic allure.

2. Artistic Style and Influences
Ma Yue’s Drama-Dream Life series exemplifies a refined airbrush technique reminiscent of vintage film posters and advertising, yet it is deliberately subverted by surreal interventions—disintegrations, distortions, and color field intrusions. Influenced by the cultural aesthetics of the Mao era and post-1980s consumer imagery, Ma Yue’s work merges pop surrealism with visual memory. The tension between realism and abstraction in this work underscores themes of identity, illusion, and the reconstruction of the past.

3. Historical Context
Created in 2006, this work reflects the broader currents in Chinese contemporary art that were emerging during the post-1990s boom. Having moved to Beijing in 1993, Ma Yue was part of a generation of artists who responded to rapid modernization and the explosion of the art market with reflective, often nostalgic portrayals of Chinese identity. Drama-Dream Life channels both a reverence for and a critique of media-driven iconography, particularly as it relates to gender, beauty, and idealized history.

4. Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation
The artwork is in very good condition. The paint surface is clean, with no signs of craquelure, fading, or restoration. The canvas remains taut, and the pigments retain their full chromatic intensity, especially in the vibrant pink background.

6. Artistic Significance
This piece stands as a testament to Ma Yue’s masterful control of form and his ability to weave visual culture into psychologically complex compositions. It resonates with collectors interested in Chinese contemporary art that explores memory, femininity, and media. As part of the acclaimed Drama-Dream Life series, it reflects both the artist’s technical sophistication and his conceptual engagement with the evolution of image-making in a rapidly transforming society.