# Minjun Yue artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/minjun-yue/
Profile generated: 2026-05-05T03:37:30.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: Chinese
- Movements: Cynical Realism
- Common media: oil painting, sculpture, watercolour, prints

## About Minjun Yue

Yue Minjun (born 1962, Daqing, China) is a Chinese contemporary artist working in Beijing. He is recognized internationally for oil paintings that depict his own face frozen in exaggerated, often unsettling laughter, a motif he has extended into sculpture, watercolour, and prints. Though frequently associated with the Cynical Realist movement that emerged in China around 1989, Yue has distanced himself from that label. His signature laughing self-portrait has become one of the most widely reproduced images in contemporary Chinese art, appearing in major museum exhibitions and private collections worldwide. Educated at Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Yue began exhibiting in the mid-1980s and rose to prominence during the boom in Chinese contemporary art in the 2000s. Collectors encounter his work across a range of media at auction and in gallery settings.

## Common works and media

Yue Minjun's most commonly encountered works at auction and appraisal include oil paintings on canvas featuring his repeated laughing self-portrait in varied compositions, often rendered in bold, saturated colour. Sculptural editions — typically bronze or painted fiberglass figures with the same laughing visage — also appear regularly. Collectors may also find watercolours, screen prints, and lithographic editions. Subject matter ranges from isolated self-portraits to multi-figure tableaux referencing art-historical and political imagery.

## Market and appraisal context

Yue Minjun's work appears frequently at international auction, with nearly 700 lots recorded in Appraisily's database spanning oil paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and prints. Large-scale oil paintings from his signature laughing-self-portrait series have historically attracted the strongest demand at major auction houses. Smaller paintings, editions, and sculptural works trade more accessibly. Key valuation factors include medium, scale, date of execution, provenance, exhibition history, and condition. Editioned works should be verified for edition number and authenticity documentation. Collectors should note that the volume of circulating work means condition, provenance, and period quality are meaningful differentiators.

## Appraisily data basis

This artist page combines identity and biographical research from library authority files and encyclopedic sources with Appraisily's database of auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots. When available, results from major auction houses and public sale databases are incorporated to provide collectors with market context.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1132877
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_Minjun
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500337513
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/39712402/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr2001000126
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/229096