Viewed as a leading artist of his generation, Jia Aili's works often feature a pessimistic palette and a dark vision that he, however, interprets as the meaning of hope. Beijing-based Jia, 36, conveyed the same message, but in vibrant colors this time, in support of the Special Olympics, which are organized to better the life of people with mental disabilities.
Jia's painting, titled Brightening World, sold for 2.62 million yuan at a Sotheby's auction on Oct 4 in Hong Kong.
All proceeds from the sale will benefit Special Olympics' several development programs in China.
In the painting, Jia portrays a chaotic world gripped by some unknown power, presenting terrifying images of disaster and distorted figures. At the center is a lonely schoolboy who wears a gas mask and sits with his back to the viewers. Blue dominates the color scheme, communicating what the artist intended as the "great doubt of the future".
The image of the masked boy recurs in Jia's many paintings, seen as an incarnation of his inner child. The artist has even turned that imagined figure into an installation and placed it at his studio as a longtime companion.
The gas mask speaks of his sensitivity to people's dilemma: it seems to defend people from the dangers of bad air but at the same time prevents them from freely breathing the fresh air.
Jia was born in Dandong city in Northeast China's Liaoning province, which borders the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Brightening World derived from a recollection that Jia heard from his grandmother in childhood. She vividly remembered a scene from the 1950-53 Korean War.
"She said it was an early winter morning in 1950, when Chinese dwelling houses along the Yalu River (the bordering river of China and the DPRK) were attacked by plane bombing. She saw broken steamers and human bodies hung on the big pagoda trees, and then the sun slowly rose from the riverbank," Jia tells China Daily in an e-mail interview.
"It is history and a true story. It has become the shared wounds of countries and people who were involved in that war, " he says, adding that the younger generations should think about how to light up the world and make the choice of using wisdom and love instead of violence.
Karen Smith, a curator and a Chinese contemporary art critic, says that Jia's paintings generally ask people to consider "what to look forward to if we continue to destroy what we create? They prompt us to think about what it is we value".
She says the painting "springs from an essential human quality", empathy, for which all those come together in support of the Special Olympics.
Jia says it was Liu Heung Shing, whom he highly respects, that first introduced him to the Special Olympics. The famed photographer serves on a senior advisory council that the organization established in its East Asia section last April.
When attending the Special Olympics' events, Jia was deeply moved by the positive spirit of athletes and the passion of Mary Gu, Special Olympics' regional president for East Asia.
"Both sports and art are lovely ways to discover the power of life. By promoting the spirit of Special Olympics, people, each as an unique body of energy, seek to affirm the value and meaning of life.
"The more social attention is drawn to people with mental disabilities and their families, the better they can be integrated into communities on a more profound level," he says.
