Yan Pei-Ming's 'Help!' at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

Yan Pei-Ming's exhibition 'Help!' at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris from October 21 to November 23, 2013, traverses history painting, portraiture, and vanitas across three gallery levels. A monumental tank in action dominates the space, rendered in thick, muddy blacks, whites, and grays that convey urgency. A Christ-like child with raised arms echoes Goya's 'Tres de Mayo' and Robert Capa's 'Death of a Republican Soldier'. A large polyptych of nine fighter jets indicts human monstrosity, contrasted with small dove paintings overhead. Large portraits of Isabelle Huppert and a fictional self-portrait of the artist's skull on a one-dollar bill underscore political engagement and a challenge to mortality, as painting is for him an 'execution'.