Yue Minjun

If the big-picture question of our time is what to make of China, this is the man to paint it. Yue's creations feature endless variations on the same hugely smiling face—his own. Given that Yue's life runs from the horrors of the Cultural Revolution to the triumphs of the new economy by way of Tiananmen Square, that face is a brilliant distillation: a laugh that isn't entirely funny; an exuberance shadowed by deep unease.