Lot 645 D

In his four-part series of works, the Chinese artist Yang Shaobin occupies himself with Fidel Castro. Three of the paintings refer to an event in 2004, when the Cuban revolutionary collapsed during a public appearance in front of graduates of the College of Art Teachers in the city of Santa Clara. Shaobin shows both a picture of Castro during his speech and the moments before and immediately after his collapse. The fourth picture shows Castro in his sickbed, his close confidant Hugo Chávez bending over him. The Venezuelan president is hinted at here in the form of a black figure.
The artist uses freeze images from video footage of this media-laden event as a model for this series. Due to its symbolism, Fidel Castro's “collapse” was particularly explosive and caused much speculation worldwide concerning the state of health of Cuba's head of state, who, since 2006, had been gradually withdrawing from his political offices. 'The fragility of his old age raises the question of the myth of his perpetual power. The natural decline of his aging body may in some ways correspond to the decline of the myth of his role and of the system. Yang Shaobin is a close observer of these correlations, since China and Cuba have the same political system. This familiarity makes him seek out other common manifestations that needed to be carefully analysed in view of the high pace of socio-political developments. Its echo will be felt in the West as well as in the East.' (Tereza de Arruda, First Steps Last Words, in: Uta Grosenick, Alexander Ochs (ed.), Yang Shaobin, First Steps, Last Words, exhib.cat. Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, Cologne 2009, p.64).