Label: Missoni, Lanvin, Jean Paul Gaultier and Valentino
Year: 2012
Liu Bolin may be painting every fashionista's favorite designer, but the origins of his art are by no means glamorous. Up until the demolition in 2005, Bolin worked in an artists' village in Beijing; he was forced to stand helpless as his studio was leveled by a decision of the Chinese government. In reaction, he created the work Hiding in the City, which showed—or obscured showing—Bolin in a series of portraits that begin at the rubble of the artists' village. In an interview with Harper's Bazaar he reminds readers, "It is very difficult for Chinese artists to earn their living; we are all martyrs of art." Although the initial intentions of his work are in the vein of protest, Bolin's latest works with fashion designers: Angela Missoni (of knitwear label Missoni), Jean Paul Gaultier, Alber Elbaz (of Lanvin) and Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli (of Valentino), take on a more lighthearted tone. In the same Harper's Bazaar article Bolin explains that it takes hours to stage one photograph and innumerable additional hours to paint the subject into place—sometimes allegedly up to five days. In a gesture of bridging Chinese culture's infatuation with 'Western brands' he "hid each designer in his or her own designs. You think about the relationship between the world we create and ourselves."