Painted in lavish flamboyant hues, yet infused with incongruous elegance, 1993 No.4 is a rare surviving masterwork from Fang Lijun’s internationally acclaimed, highly iconic and elusive, esoteric oeuvre. In 1993, Fang Lijun created six works specifically for the thematic exhibition “Passage to the East” at the Venice Biennale. Among the six paintings, only one was exhibited due to limited space. The present work was not exhibited; however, as a few of the six were lost in transit during the return trip from Venice, 1993 No.4 has since become a rare surviving historical painting documenting the most imperative period of the genre of Chinese Contemporary art, namely its inception onto the international art stage. The painting was thus created during an acutely momentous period in Fang Lijun’s career as well as within the wider context of the development of Chinese Contemporary art; further, by featuring Fang Lijun’s own father (the dominant shaved head on the left) as well as the artist’s own self-portrait in the lower right corner, 1993 No.4 is also an extraordinarily personal painting. Coinciding with this important series of six works is the emergence of Fang Lijun’s singular ‘gaudy’ aesthetic, characterized by vivid, even vulgar, tones, yet executed in refined brushwork. Such a distinctive aesthetic further augmented the international profile of Fang Lijun’s already globally renowned ‘shaved heads’ motif, which had already garnered attention in the late 1980s. After the Venice Biennale, Fang’s signature aesthetic earned him international renown and ignited new Western perspectives and interpretations on Chinese Contemporary art. Fang Lijun henceforth became one the very first Chinese Contemporary artists to receive academic recognition and to have works collects ed by museums, solidifying his status as the forerunner of Cynical Realism.

In China, the year 1993 could not have been more ordinary. The national policy on economic development was well underway, the economic system was growing steadily, and with the onset of commercialization, the humanistic fervor of the 1980’s was gradually disappearing. Against this background, momentous developments were underway in Chinese Contemporary art, and for Fang Lijun in particular. In January 1993, he participated in the exhibition “China's New Art, Post-1989" organized by Li Xianting and Johnson Chang in Hong Kong, in which Li Xianting defined and laid down the two dominant trends of Cynical Realism and Political Pop. The two trends were believed to directly manifest the ideologies of contemporary Chinese and reflect artists’ self-conscious explorations. The artists shown in the exhibition also formed the basis of the roster in the special thematic exhibition “Passage to the East” in the 1993 Venice Biennale. In fact, the Biennale’s influence was felt already at the end of 1992; in October, director Achille Bonito Oliva visited China and met Li Xianting, who showed him lantern slides of the works featured in “China's New Art, Post-1989” one after another. It was on this basis that the final roster of participating artists were decided for the Biennale.

It was against this context – the unspeakable exhilaration of the imminent first international exhibition for Chinese Contemporary art on the prestigious stage of the Venice Biennale – that Fang Lijun created 1993 No.4. The most striking difference between 1993 No.4 and Fang’s earlier paintings was the emergence of his trademark gaudy aesthetic. For Li Xianting: “This was perhaps stimulated by the colors of the Chinese environment. Early on he noticed the explosion of consumer culture, especially the increasing gaudiness of Chinese urban environments. He more than once lamented the profusion of vulgar colors in China. I remember clearly how he looked when he talked about the vulgarization of Suzhou’s literati gardens. I think what I saw was a kind of anger, but the expression was a helplessness mixed with cynical humor. It was a feeling of ‘If I can't change the situation, why bother?’ The turn towards gaudiness in his colors came from his mischievous character. He used gaudiness to amplify the mockery and self-mockery”. Aside from a brighter, more vividly vivacious palette, Fang Lijun also introduced a large number of flowers in 1993 No.4. While he declines to clarify on the symbolic meaning of his vibrant flowers, he once wrote in 1995: “Human nature is likened to a piece of land where flowers and poisonous grass coexist and grow. Man, however, only wishes to see flowers and have therefore paid a high painful price for their negligence of the potential evil in human nature. We have to face the fact and weed out hatred like farmers weed out the grass” (the artist quoted in Hovdenakle, “Fang Lijun and His Art”, in Chinese Artists of Today: Fang Lijun, 2006, p.111).

The shaved head on the left is based on Fang's father and is carefully and superlatively portrayed as much more of an authority figure than the other bored, disinterested shaved heads. This astute touch perhaps reflects the artist's thinking at the t.mes : created expressly for the Venice Biennale, these works were under the control of discursive authority from the start. Fang Lijun's self-portrait appears in an inconspicuous corner, further suggesting his conflicted state of mind. Fang once stated about his shaved heads: “I noticed that although a shaved head on its own is very striking, its individuality disappears in a group of shaved heads. I found the idea very compelling that an individual person’s feeling of being omitted and ignored in society is especially strong in our culture”. Before 1993 No. 4, Fang Lijun's shaved heads had already garnered much attention within China. Fang himself always kept his head shaved, and his works were related to his life. The shaved heads' suggestions of boredom and mischief and the paintings' ambiguous mood already come a long way from the humanistic passion of his 1980's work. The backgrounds of azure skies and deep-blue seas made the paintings even more absurd, making the viewer aware of the darker sides of life. Li Xianting characterized the ennui and sarcastic anti-sociability in this paintings as a "mischievous" Cynical Realism, which he saw as a "product of existential feelings."

After the Venice Biennale, Fang’s figures with shaved heads had been widely recognized, and the theme expressed fully Fang's mischievous character and consideration of life. Fang's paintings from 1993 signified a departure from the theme of shaved heads, but his meditations on the emptiness of life and on the profusion of consumer culture never ceased. The ever-changing sky in the background of 1993 No. 4 was different from the flat backgrounds of earlier works. Fang Lijun has said that from the late 80's, water and shaved heads had both become the elements he wanted to render in art. But for the young artist, the shaved heads were visually more arresting, and so he first decided to tackle them. In the second half of 1993, Fang Lijun approached a subject that had interested him for a while: water, which is just as unpredicable as the sky but sublter and more spiritual. After 2000, Fang's separate developments of the two subjects of shaved heads and water would coalesce into and culminate in grand pictures that expressed his new feelings towards life in the new century.

The series of works from 1993 earned Fang international renown and solicited new Western perspectives on contemporary Chinese art. It also made him a leading figure among contemporary Chinese artists. The outcome of his works in turned influenced his own life, and Fang Lijun would be intimately connected to various international exhibitions. Thus, for Fang Lijun, the year 1993 and 1993 No. 4 represent a turning point in both his art and life.

1993年對於整個中國來說或許算是再平靜不過的一年，國家的經濟建設政策在有條不紊地進行着，市場經濟體制也在平穩有序地發展——隨着商業大潮的侵襲，80年代那種高漲的人文熱情在逐漸消隱，這也是奠定90年代初中國大陸基本社會面貌的基礎。然而對於方力鈞來說，這一年卻太不平靜。一月底，他參加了由栗憲庭、張頌仁策劃的〈中國後八九藝術展〉，在今天看來，這個展覽無疑是中國當代藝術走進國際視野的基石，也正是在這個展覽中，栗憲庭所加以界定與評介的「玩世現實主義」與「政治波普」作為兩種潮流，在展覽當中作為兩個部分被加以呈現。這兩種潮流被認為是直接觸及到了中國當下的意識形態，也是藝術家們對於藝術語言當代化進行自覺探索的反映。而參與此次展覽的藝術家，也構成了入選1993年威尼斯雙年展〈走向東方〉專題展的藝術家名單之基礎。

實際上，威尼斯雙年展的影響在1992年末就開始顯現，十月，策展人奧利瓦第一次訪問中國，與栗憲庭進行接洽，對於中國當代藝術，奧利瓦只有粗略的瞭解，但另一方面，作為策展人的他卻握有絶對的選擇權。在他看來，那些即使不瞭解中國文化背景，也能引發觀者對於中國意識形態問題的敏感反應的作品才更易於為西方所接納，但這樣的標準勢必會導致對中國當代藝術的片面認知。在這樣的考慮下，栗憲庭將正在策劃中的「中國後八九藝術展」的幻燈片逐一放給奧利瓦看，以此為基礎選定最終參展的藝術家名單。對於當時的中國藝術家來說，這樣的大展除了機遇之外，還意味着國際性視野的評判，而奧利瓦最終會將橄欖枝拋向何人，在評判的意味之外則似乎又多了一層「恩賜」般的感覺。方力鈞的《1993 No.4》便是在這樣的背景當中所創作的，也許這樣的背景氛圍帶來的影響會多多少少地、如同潛流一般暗伏在方力鈞的創作過程中，但方力鈞在繪製《1993 No.4》之時，絶不會想到接下來的整個1993年會使其整個人生與藝術創作產生何等程度的轉變。《1993 No.4》是方力鈞專為威尼斯雙年展所創作的六件系列作品當中的一件，唯最後因為展場地方不夠，只能展出一張作品，這張作品跟其他五張作品一樣，未能展出。但值得一提的是，此批作品於展覽回程中遺失了二至三張，而《1993 No.4》是少數倖存的一張。

1988年開始創作在「光頭」系列，「我發現一個現象就是，雖然光頭作為單獨的形象會很突出，但當它作為群體出現時，那種個性就消失。這個理由對於我是強有力的，那就是每一個人作為個體在整個社會中被忽視、忽略的感覺對於我們這樣文化背景下的人是比較強烈的。」《1993 No.4》以前，方力鈞「光頭」形象的作品在國內已經引起不小的關注。方力鈞在當時便一直保持光頭形象，他的作品與其生活狀態是相關聯的，而「光頭」形象所顯示的無聊、調侃，畫面氣氛的含糊不清已經脫離了80年代藝術界那種倡導人文熱情的語境，將之置於碧海藍天的背景之中，更加強了作品的荒誕感，使人意識到生活中不那麼光鮮的一面。這種很少在藝術中被加以放大的空虛、痞氣、玩世不恭被栗憲庭總結為是「潑皮」式的玩世現實主義，是一種「生存感覺的產物」。

《1993 No.4》與此前的光頭作品相比最明顯的更新之處，則是在其中出現的的艷俗傾向，在栗憲庭看來，「這也許是中國的環境色彩帶給他的刺激，他更早地意識到消費文化的氾濫，尤其是中國城市環境色彩的艷俗傾向，他曾不止一次為這種庸俗的色彩充斥中國而感慨，我清楚地記得他有一次從蘇州回來，說起蘇州淡雅的文人園林如今被艷俗化時的那種表情，我想我見到那種情景會是一種憤怒，而當時方的表情是在無奈中又帶著玩世式的嘲笑，一種彷彿『既然無力回天，何必自尋煩惱』的感覺，他作品色彩的艷俗化，來自他的那種潑皮的個性，以庸俗和艷麗的色彩來加強嘲諷和自我嘲諷的話語強度。」除了畫面色彩更加明快濃烈，方力鈞還在這件作品中加入了大量的鮮花，畫面左部的「光頭」來自於方力鈞父親的形象，這比起之前那些無聊、無謂的「光頭」來說，更多了一些強權的意味，這或許也多少說明了藝術家在創作時的心態：為威尼斯雙年展所特別創作的作品，從它們誕生的那一刻起，就一直處在更強話語權的注視之下。方力鈞自己的形象位於畫面不顯眼的角落，則更顯露出這種心態的複雜性。在《1993 No.4》中，色彩的艷俗化與玩世不恭的潑皮個性與八O年代末的畫面情緒是一脈相承的，但同時又蘊含著新的轉向。

在威尼斯雙年展之後，「光頭」得到了普遍認可，「光頭」主題可以說已經完滿地傳達了這種潑皮個性與對生活的考量，在這個意義上，1993年的一系列作品可以說標誌著「光頭」主題作品的告一段落，但他對於人生之虛無、消費文化之氾濫的思考卻未嘗落下帷幕。《1993 No.4》畫面背景中變幻莫測的天空與此前的少變化、近乎平塗的畫面背景相比是一種新的嘗試，方力鈞曾經提到，從80年代末開始，「水」和「光頭」就已經都是他想要通過藝術加以表達的元素了，只是對於一個年輕藝術家來說，「光頭」顯然更具有強烈的視覺效果，於是便把工作順序先安排在「光頭」這一部分。從一九九三年後半年開始，方力鈞進入了此前一直在思考的題材，那就是同樣變幻莫測，但更為內斂和富於精神性的「水」，而方力鈞在90年代對於畫面元素的分別探索則在2000年以後集大成，與他在新世紀的對於生命新的感觸相結合，在之後形成了更加豐滿恢弘的巨製。

1993年的這系列作品使方力鈞揚名海外，引發西方觀察中國當代藝術的新視角，也令他成為中國當代藝術的領軍人物。作品引發的影響同時又反作用於他的生活，從此方力鈞的名字開始與各種國際性展覽緊密聯繫在一起。因此，對方力鈞而言，一九九三年與他的作品《1993 No.4》完全可以視作是他在人生與藝術上的雙重轉折點。