Join The Collection to save, track, and explore works like this.

Cai Guo-Qiang — Blue Fire and Blue Bird
Cai Guo-Qiang — Blue Fire and Blue Bird
Cai Guo-Qiang — Blue Fire and Blue Bird
Cai Guo-Qiang

Blue Fire and Blue Bird

2026

This monumental gunpowder painting presents an explosive composition dominated by vivid blues, teals, and deep indigos that radiate outward from a concentrated central vortex. Scattered across a largely white ground, countless organic forms emerge from controlled detonations, creating halos of pigment and charred marks that suggest both celestial phenomena and natural turbulence. The work exemplifies the artist's signature technique of harnessing gunpowder's destructive force to generate painterly effects, where precision and chaos converge. Recent chromatic intensity marks a departure from decades of monochromatic black explosions, introducing a new vocabulary of color saturation and tonal complexity. The composition invites simultaneous readings as landscape, abstraction, or cosmic event, embodying the fundamental tension between creation and destruction that defines this artistic practice.

Medium
Gunpowder on canvas
Overall

Notes

White Cube solo presentation of Cai Guo-Qiang at TEFAF New York 2026, Stand 355, Park Avenue Armory, May 14–19, 2026. Made 2022 to 2026. Framed: 184.8 x 154.9 x 6.7 cm.

For Sale — $700000

Start the Discussion

Request access to join the discussion

About this work

Cai Guo-Qiang, Blue Fire and Blue Bird, 2026

This monumental gunpowder painting presents an explosive composition dominated by vivid blues, teals, and deep indigos that radiate outward from a concentrated central vortex. Scattered across a largely white ground, countless organic forms emerge from controlled detonations, creating halos of pigment and charred marks that suggest both celestial phenomena and natural turbulence. The work exemplifies the artist's signature technique of harnessing gunpowder's destructive force to generate painterly effects, where precision and chaos converge. Recent chromatic intensity marks a departure from decades of monochromatic black explosions, introducing a new vocabulary of color saturation and tonal complexity. The composition invites simultaneous readings as landscape, abstraction, or cosmic event, embodying the fundamental tension between creation and destruction that defines this artistic practice.

Medium
Gunpowder on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 183 x 152.5 cm
Year
2026
Seen at
White Cube, London, United Kingdom

Related themes

Controlled Detonation, Scorch Marks, Living Artist, Cosmic Abstraction, Pigment Dispersal, Gunpowder Painting, Mixed Media, Blue Chip Gallery, Explosive Technique, Chinese Artist, Destruction Creation, Canvas, Kinetic Energy, Abstract Expressionism, Contemporary Painting, Color Saturation, Chromatic Intensity, Contemporary Art, Blue Palette, Large Scale

More works by Cai Guo-Qiang