Explore the eight canvases on view in the exhibition Li Songsong: History Painting at Pace in New York through this new booklet from Pace Publishing, available digitally and as a forthcoming print edition.

Li Songsong

History Painting

Representing a more abstract direction for Li, who has long taken up historical imagery as both inspiration and substance, the new works in History Painting are an evolution of his signature style. Published alongside the paintings are quotations from the artist, as well as detailed imagery of his bold brush strokes and blocks of color.

In her essay “Li Songsong: History and Withdrawal,” also included in this publication, curator Xin Wang situates Li’s latest body of work within the wider context of his practice. Where his previous canvases held traces of fractured figures—distorted snapshots of historical and political events—in his new paintings, she writes, “legible visual references—historical or personal—have completely vanished.” The work's emotional resonance is amplified, she argues, because of this withdrawal into further illegibility, in which, without traceable figures, the paint itself becomes the historical source material.