曹力无疑是当代中国的重要画家之一。他很早成名,20世纪80年代中期就开始活跃于中国当代绘画界。他一直独立于艺术潮流之外,似乎缺少主动与媒体互动的热情。他的艺术作品所体现的主要是与自我的对话,在安全的世界里游玩、畅想,隐匿了对政治、历史、文化和现实的直接看法。在艺术语言上,他习惯性地回避了具象绘画在当代中国要么具有社会性,要么唯美化这两种主流的表现方法,以表现和超现实的方式叙述着个人的历史情境,构建了一种纯个人的自白体的艺术。1986年曹力所画的一幅素描《自我像 Cao Li is undoubtedly one of the important painters in contemporary China. He became famous early and became active in the contemporary Chinese painting circles in the mid-1980s. He has always been independent of the art trend and seems to lack the enthusiasm to interact with the media. His works of art embody the dialogue with self, play in a safe world, entertain and conceal the direct viewpoints on politics, history, culture and reality. In the artistic language, he habitually avoids the representational painting in contemporary China, either with social or aesthetic expression of these two mainstream methods of expression, in the form of performance and surreal way of describing the historical context of individuals, to build a The art of purely personal body. In 1986 Cao Li painted a sketch of "self like