"Marks No. 16" (2007) is one of the most beautiful, poignant and quietly powerful of the large-scale color figurative photographs by famed Chinese Contemporary artist Tian Taiquan (China B. 1960), that belongs to his epic "Marks" series, where performance art, film and photography intersect. This work is from an edition of just 8, and measures 35.43 x 35.43 inches (90 x 90 cm) unframed and is in excellent condition. This is the first edition of this photograph to ever come to international auction. The setting is a well-known Beijing cemetery, where a beautiful, anonymous Chinese woman is depicted dressed in a PRC Red Guard uniform as she plays the flute, possessing a spectral feel, as if she is a living part of the engraved Chinese calligraphic stone monument depicted. All of the women in Tian's oeuvre represent the anonymous collective of those who were displaced, disappeared or victimized during China's disastrous "Cultural Revolution".

A pioneer of the 'Cynical Realist' movement of artists from his generation, Tian Taiquan (China, b. 1960) uses his work to critique the internal politics and agenda that defined the Mao-era and events such as the "Cultural Revolution" which he experienced as a young man. The artist graduated from the prestigious Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, China in 1988 and was a Resident Artist at Tank Loft, Chongqing Contemporary Art Centre, China. Tian Taiquan continues to be one of the most relevant photographers from the Chinese Avant-Garde generation of artist. His photographs, especially from the "Sacrifice" series, have been the subject of Gallery and Museum exhibitions such as "Seek and Hide, Tian Taiquan Solo Exhibition," Cultural Arts Museum, Beijing, China and "Foreordination and Transcendence" Contemporary Photography Exhibition, Singapore.