Yan Pei-Ming is a Chinese painter born in 1960 in Shanghai. Since 1982 he has lived in Dijon, France. His most famous paintings are "epic-sized" portraits of Mao Zedong worked out in black and white or red and white. He works with big brushes, and his paintings are brought to life by the rapid brush strokes which structure the picture space. Yan Pei-Ming was born in Shanghai in 1960, and was the second of four children. He grew up during the Cultural Revolution, and started to paint in his spare time. He applied for admission to the Shanghai Art & Design School, but was rejected due to his stutter. In 1980 he left Shanghai for France, where he enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, graduating in 1999. Yan Pei-Ming has become known for his "epic-sized" portraits, including works featuring Mao Zedong, Bruce Lee and his father. He has exhibited his work in the Venice Biennale in 2003 and at the Sevilla Biennale in 2006. His first solo exhibition in the US was displayed in the David Zwirner Gallery in New York, May, 2007.The Honolulu Academy of Arts and the National Gallery of Australia are among the public collections holding works by Yan Pei-Ming. On February 10, 2009, it was announced that The Funeral of Mona Lisa will go on display at The Louvre on February 12, 2009 until May 18, 2009 in the room next to the original Mona Lisa.