Wang Keping (Chinese, born 1949) Stilt walker, 1992 Carved wood, oak, signed. Height 87, width 38, depth 18 cm. Provenance: offered by the artist to a friend welcoming him in the Loire Valley to thank him for having found him some rough wood in the forest of Marchenoir. Certificate of authenticity of the artist. "Wang Keping is a sculptor born in 1949 near Beijing, who currently lives and works in Paris. In 1979, Wang Keping was one of the founding members of the first group of non-conformist artists in China, Les Etoiles (Xing Xing), setting up the avant-garde in China. As such, he is one of the founders of Chinese contemporary art, not least because of the key role he played during the Cultural Revolution in China, which led to his exile, in France, as early as 1984. Since then, he has developed a virtuoso, timeless body of work that explores all the possibilities of wood, internationally recognized as one of the most important contributions to contemporary sculpture." Presentation of the artist at the Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire