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Sun Yitian Happy Family Car, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
161,3 x 208,4 x 9 cm (framed)
The TV set depicted in Sun Yitian's painting Happy Family Car has both a personal and a cultural history. It refers to the one her parents bought as a young couple in 1991 before she was born. Typical of her generation, born during the one-child policy practiced in China from 1979 to 2015, the artist had no siblings and spent time watching TV. The animation depicted in the painting is “Happy Family Car” produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1997. It was broadcast every night on the children's program and is a near-collective memory of her generation. It tells the story of three young friends in a flying caravan and their adventures at school with teachers and classmates.
At the same time, the image Sun Yitian has chosen, a circle of cartoon figures against a green background, is a scene she recalls from childhood but with hindsight sees through her art historical training. To her the composition is reminiscent of Henri Matisse's famous painting Dance, 1909.
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