Mu Pan
Mu Pan (artist)
Mu Pan is a contemporary artist. He lives in New York and is represented by Galerie LJ, based in Paris.
Early Life
Mu Wen Pan was born in 1976 in Taichung City, Taiwan. He is a descendant of Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist forces and the refugees who fled to Taiwan in the wake of the Chinese Civil War (1927–1949).
Mu Pan grew up in Taiwan until his parents decided to emigrate to the United States in 1997. If he had not gone to art school, his mother would have sent him to a military academy. Although battle scenes excite him, they have nothing to do with his military service experience in Taiwan. In fact, he was just a propaganda soldier of the political warfare department: all he did there was poster-making and mural-painting.[1]
Moving to the United States turned out to be a good idea, as he obtained a BFA in illustration in 2001, then an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay in 2007, both from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City.
Work
[2]Growing up in the eighties and nineties in Taiwan, torn between Chinese tradition and Japanese pop culture, several crucial characters shaped the young Mu and helped him navigate through this identity crisis. American culture came to him mainly in the form of rare copies of Mad magazine, brought back once in a while by his mother’s American employers. Immersing himself in the enthralling world of kung fu chivalry, Pan picked his role models in Wuxia novels and Hong Kong movies of the 1970s. Their names are Guo Jing, Sūn Wùkōng, and Jackie Chan, and they taught him to be faithful, to work hard, and to always keep a biting sense of humor.
As for many kids in the 1980s, Hong Kong martial arts films fueled Mu Pan’s insatiable imagination[3], and his patriotic feelings as well. Fist of Fury (1972) remains his favorite Bruce Lee movie of all. Although Pan claims being an unconditional fan of Jackie Chan when he was a kid, he was about four years old when he first saw a Bruce Lee poster in his uncle’s bedroom and found out that he and Lee were both born under the sign of the Dragon. “Bruce Lee is religion,” and he surely gave Mu Pan his blessing to distribute a good number of one-inch punches through his paintings.
A great part of Pan’s approach to composition, line-work, and detail draws on the tradition of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Ukiyo-e, or pictures of the floating world, flourished from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries in the city of Edo (Tokyo): these woodblock prints of landscapes, city life, kabuki actors, female courtesans, and sometimes erotic scenes were produced for a mass audience, and hugely popular.
Outside Asia, ukiyo-e also had a profound impact in the West, giving birth to the Japonisme trend among French Impressionist and Postimpressionist painters. While Hokusai is probably the best known artist of ukiyo-e, Mu Pan’s master would be Kuniyoshi and the eminently modern style of his photographic point of view. From the Brooklyn Museum’s collection online, Pan discovered Kawanabe Kyōsai’s Wars of the Frogs, sketches in ink on paper from the late nineteenth century, which inspired his epic series “Frog Wars.” His preoccupation with action and gesture reflects his interest in Toshusai Sharaku (late eighteenth century), master of the kabuki actors print. The analogy between Pan’s paintings and ukiyo-e was particularly well reflected in the lavish exhibition dedicated to his work in 2019 at Colección SOLO in Madrid: a selection of Kuniyoshi’s woodblock prints were accompanying the most beautiful works of Mu Pan in this Spanish private collection.[4]
The chaotic mannerism of Mu Pan’s epic narratives echoes the Hispanic Baroques. The art of Mu Pan is the encounter of Hieronymus Bosch, Kuniyoshi, and Marvel: a blend of classic Eastern-inspired folk art infused with modern pop culture references. Pan is a man of paradoxes: he hates painting, although he is quite good at it. He enjoys drawing much more, and when he paints, he feels as if it’s like drawing with a brush. He doesn’t really consider his work as art: "I'm just an otaku who draws"[3]. He must be obsessed with something in order for him to want to make an image: this obsession is the energy that drives him to complete his work. And Mu Pan does not worry whether the viewer is uncomfortable. His work is not for the faint of heart: it is riddled with explorations of the darker sides of humanity and serves as a fantasized satire of contemporary life.[5]
"I love battle scenes; it’s my favorite subject,”[1]
His twisted imagination allows him very little relief. When he's excited about something he saw or read in the media, or from his daily life, he first associates the subject with a monster or some creature on a large scale, then thinks about who it will be fighting with.
“War, to some degree, is a beautiful thing to me. War creates great characters, and it also writes history. You’ve got to be a great artist in order to fight a war as a commander. There are so many arts you have to master in warfare, such as the formation, the economic concern, the time, the strategy, the geographic advantage, the numbers difference between you and your enemy, the art of brainwashing for loyalty, and the sense of mission. It costs a great amount of patience, and it also requires a high level of charisma and intelligence. Whether it is for invading or defending, to me it is just beautiful to see how a person can unite people’s individual strengths to become one great power to fight against the opponent.”[3]
Exhibitions
2020
Poulsen Gallery, Art Herning, Herning (DK).
2019
Colección Solo, Madrid – Retrospective exhibition
Galerie LJ, Paris – ‘The Sword of MUtual Demise’ – Solo show.
2018
Joshua Liner Gallery, New York – ‘Bright Moon Shines On The River’ – Solo show
Art Central, Hong Kong – Galerie LJ, solo show.
Poulsen Gallery, Copenhaguen – ‘Battles Without Honor and Humanity’ – Solo show.
2017
Galerie LJ, Paris – ‘Treat Your Mother Right’ – Solo show
2016
Poulsen Gallery, Copenhaguen -‘Your Mother Should Know’ – Solo show
2015
Worcester Art Museum, Boston – ‘Samurai’ – Exposition collective, curator: Eric Nakamura
Galerie LJ, Paris – ‘Fake Cover’ – Solo show
2014
Copro Nason Gallery, Santa Monica – ‘One Inch Punch’ – Solo show
2013
Museum of Art brut (Halle Saint Pierre), Paris – ‘Hey ! Part II’ – Group show
2012
3rd Ward, Brooklyn – ‘The Way of The Dog’ – Solo show
2011
KunstRaum H&H, Cologne – ‘The Other Mountain and The Other Sea’ – Solo show
Bibliography
- Monographs "American Fried Rice - The Art of Mupan", Abrams, 2020
Article
El País, Las bestias de Mu Pan se asoman a la puerta de Acalá, Decembrer 6th 2019
Marie Claire España, Espacio Solo: el museo secreto de Madrid para el que hay lista de espera, May 2019
TeleMadrid, El universo surrealista de Mu Pan se expone en Madrid, May 2019
Vanidad, Descubre el infinito universo de Mu Pan, la primera exposición del Espacio SOLO en España, May 2019
Elle Decor España, Los monstruos de Mu Pan, May 2019
Cambio16, Mu Pan Y Otras Bestias, May 2019
Neocha – Culture & Creativity in Asia, “The Art of War“, February 2018
Sohu, 潘慕文:在美国坚持中国文化的呈现, November 2017
Hi Fructose, “Mu Pan’s Massive Painted Battles Scenes“, July 2017
Dangerous Minds, “The Grotesquely Chaotic Paintings of Mu Pan“, June 27th 2017
Hi Fructose Online, “Mu Pan’s Chaotic, Elegant Battle Scenes“, May 7th 2017
Version Fémina/JDD, “Peinture engagée: Mu Pan”, October 26th 2015
Juxtapoz Online, “Giant Robot Biennale @Japanese American National Museum”, October 2015
Juztapoz Online, “The Works of Mu Pan“, March 2013
Beautiful Decay, “Brooklyn artist Mu pan on painting, process and influences“, 2012
Hey! Magazine, “Mu Pan”, March 2012
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Mu Pan's Chaotic, Elegant Battle Scenes". Hi-Fructose Magazine. 2017-05-07. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
- ↑ Pan, Mu (2020). American Fried Rice. New York: Abrams. pp. e.g.14–15. ISBN 978-1-4197-5055-7. Search this book on
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Tapping into the visceral power of war and conflict with Taiwanese painter Mu Pan". Retrieved 2020-11-12.
- ↑ Pan, Mu (2020). American Fried Rice. New York: Abrams. pp. e.g. 15–16. ISBN 978-1-4197-5055-7. Search this book on
- ↑ Pan, Mu (2020). American Fried Rice. New York: Abrams. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-1-4197-5055-7. Search this book on
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