Executed in 1994, Mask Series No. 11 hails from the first year of Zeng Fanzhi’s eponymous series. One of the most instantly recognizable manifestations of China’s avant-garde to have been created over the past three decades, the Mask Series encapsulates the artist’s primary concerns whilst reflecting the wider socio-cultural background that led to its genesis, standing as a critical signification of China’s recent history. Representing the nascence of this era-defining visual lexicon, Mask Series No. 11 stands out with its background of elegantly beguiling teal – a singular hue seen only in his earliest works from the series. Against the muted teal is the shock of the raw flesh seen in the figure’s exposed skin as well as his accompanying dog. The mask fails to conceal – and indeed accentuates – the expression of anguish that rents the face asunder; while the visceral rawness of the dog’s skin highlights the rawness of his owner’s body hidden behind his mask and smart suit. Before any other Chinese artist, Zeng captured the aesthetic underpinning modern urbanity in a consumer society. The sophisticated couturier outfit reflects yet another regime of social control, and the pain of the exposed flesh, bearing the power of raw life, is evident under the restraint of his anonymous business suit. The extraordinary success of Zeng’s Mask Series reveals its resonance not only as a modern ‘Chinese’ aesthetic, but an urban aesthetic ubiquitous to all who grow up within its milieu.

Zeng’s first exposure to art occurred early in his estranged childhood. Not yet ten years of age, he regularly sat for his neighbour, a painter, who also made woodblock prints of Lu Xun and Karl Marx in the style of German artist/printmaker Käthe Kollwitz. Kollwitz’s incisive angst-ridden lines were thus one of Zeng’s earliest influences. Later, when Zeng enrolled into the renowned Hubei Academy of Replica Handbags s from 1987 to 1991, he found the Social Realist training stifling and developed his own techniques and styles that inclined towards German Expressionism. His efforts were rewarded much sooner than he expected: in 1991, the eminent critic/curator Li Xianting chanced upon Zeng’s graduation Meat and Hospital works, published critical appraisals and elevated him to the ranks of the foremost avant-garde artists of the generation.

His career thus launched, Zeng moved from his birthplace Wuhan to Beijing in 1993, a move that inspired his most celebrated Mask series. Overwhelmed by capitalist-driven consumer culture, Zeng plastered white masks on his subjects like a second skin, annihilating identities and disguising emotions and anxieties. Zeng associates this gesture of ‘concealment’ to social observation – “Everybody wanted to look good, but there was an air of fraudulence” (the artist cited in “Zeng Fanzhi: Amid Change, The Art of Isolation”, in The New York t.mes s, May 2007) – as well as to his own introverted tendency to hide his feelings. Importantly, however, the true genius of Zeng’s Masks lies in how they function less as a tool of concealment than a masterful instrument of heightened expression. As Karen Smith observes, Zeng’s masks “closely follow the contours of the face … The emotion was clearly there for all to see, for the actual mask concealed nothing. […] the mask merely frames the face and puts the emotion into straightforward black and white” (Smith, 2003).

The resulting intensity of expression and depth of emotional power is on par with the vehement anguish of Francis Bacon or the fierce desolation of Max Beckmann. Communicating a wholly idiosyncratic artistic language and sharp commentary on society, Zeng’s Masks launched the artist into international acclaim, establishing him as one of the foremost representative Chinese artists on the global stage of contemporary art. Zeng condenses private history with collects ive neurosis, delivering a simultaneously veiled and penetrating observation on the universal anxieties of an increasingly capitalist world, epitomizing the wider socio-economic state of China. Consummately executed and superlatively iconic, the present work stands as a superior paradigm within Zeng Fanzhi’s oeuvre.

《面具系列11號》作於1994年，同名的作品系列於同年誕生。《面具系列》是過往三十年來最為人所熟悉、令人一眼可辨的中國前衛藝術作品，濃縮了曾凡志的主要創作意念，同時反映了促成作品誕生的社會文化大環境，堪稱中國近代史的重要標誌。作為這個劃時代視覺語彙的初始之作，《面具系列11號》以優雅迷人的藍綠色背景吸引觀者注目。這種奇異獨特的色調，僅見於該系列的早期作品。在暗沉的藍綠背景上，紅色血肉在畫中人袒露的面部皮膚及身旁的小狗上突兀呈現——「面具」無法遮掩畫中人五官猙獰的憤怒表情，反而加強了它的視覺效果；小狗的皮肉赤軀，更凸顯出它的主人在畢挺西裝和面具下遮掩的肉體。在本作中，曾凡志領先所有中國藝術家一步，將奠基於消費主義的現代都市主義美學呈現畫上。畫中人身穿的精緻定製套服，反映出另一種社會權力制度的箝制；裸露的肉體承載著生命難以承受之重，在一身毫無個人特色的西裝的束縛下欲蓋彌彰。曾凡志《面具系列》所取得的巨大成就，不僅因為作品反映出一種現代的「中國式」美學， 更因為它們體現了所有在這個時代環境下成長的人皆有所共鳴的都市美學，極具普世意義。

曾梵志於寂寞的童年歲月初次接觸藝術。他還未滿十歲時，已經常擔任一位畫家鄰居的模特兒，這位畫家曾以德國藝術家及版畫家凱特・柯勒惠支的風格，製作魯迅及卡爾・馬克思肖像的木版畫（Smith，2003，同上）。柯勒惠支那尖銳而充滿焦慮的線條，便成為曾梵志最初的靈感來源。後來，曾梵志在1987至1991年就讀湖北美術學院，並認為社會現實主義風格的培訓過於壓抑，於是逐漸發展出一套傾向德國表現主義的獨特個人風格。他的成就比預期中來得更快：1991年，著名藝評家及策展人栗憲庭在偶然遇見了藝術家的畢業作品《肉》系列及《協和醫院》系列，公開予以佳評，令曾梵志一躍成名，躋身那個年代最前衛的先鋒藝術家之列。

自此，曾梵志的藝術生涯正式展開。1993年，曾梵志從出生地武漢遷至北京，成就了藝術家最為人稱頌的《面具》系列。面對資本主義下的消費文化，曾梵志有感不勝負荷；他以白色面具遮蔽畫中人的五官，猶如為人物賦予另一塊皮膚，抹去了他們的身份，隱藏了他們的情感及焦慮。曾梵志將這種「隱藏」之舉，與他對社會的體察聯繫起來：「每個人都希望有光鮮的外表，但卻也顯得有點虛假」（引述自藝術家，〈曾梵志︰傳變之中，孤獨的藝術〉，《紐約時報》，2007年5月），此舉亦與他習慣隱藏情緒的內向性格有關。但重要的是，曾梵志《面具》系列的精髓，在於這些面具不為隱藏情緒，反而為巧妙地表達出強烈的情緒。根據凱倫・史密斯的觀察所得，曾梵志筆下的面具「緊貼著面部輪廓……實際上，人物的表情顯而易見，因為面具並沒有隱藏任何事物。(……) 面具僅僅把面部遮擋，人物的情緒卻是欲蓋彌彰，表露無遺」（Smith，2003，同上）。

《面具》系列別樹一幟的藝術語彙對當下社會作敏銳評論，使曾梵志躍升國際舞台，享譽全球，位列極具代表性中國當代藝術家其一。本作表達出強烈、深沉的情感，與弗朗西斯・培根作品所呈現的鬱緒愴惻，或馬克思・貝克曼所表現的孤寂蒼涼感相當。曾梵志的《面具系列11號》無疑是其標誌性《面具》系列的優秀範例。藝術家通過本作別出心裁的構圖、明與暗的對比以及令人毛骨悚然的面具，濃縮自身過去並與時代的集體回憶融合為一，隱晦地傳遞了對世界日趨資本主義的焦慮和深入觀察，宏觀體現了中國社會的經濟狀況與趨向。