ZHONG CHENG

Robert Combas moved to live and work in suburb Paris in 1980. He is inspired by the combination of daily life, history, and myths, and showcases unique creativity that incorporates the styles of cartoon and graffiti; his works are rich in sense of humor and exert profound visual impact. Combas pioneered and advocates “figuration libre,” and the New-Expressionism Movement allows the content of painting to freely depict social phenomena, including violence, sex, and struggles in life, and present themes such as the significance or insignificance of common people, as a means of poking fun of contemporary social dynamics. By adopting popular cartoon style, Combas incorporates cultures from different places around the world, freely narrates and imagines, and uses exaggerated, transformed, and sarcastic visual languages to showcase the various phenomena in contemporary urban civilization, such as violence, pornography, and disturbance; also, with flat application of bright colors, he fills various writing symbols to reinterpret and transcend history, and at the same time, express the madness of individual’s indulgence in lust.