Oil on canvas

225 x 128 cm. 88 5/8 x 50 3/8 in.

Signed in Chinese and dated on lower right

Literature：
Beijing Imperial City Art Museum Publish House， Beijing， China， Western Eye-Early Contemporary Chinese Painting， 2006， p.38.

Exhibited：
Beijing Imperial City Art Museum， Beijing， China， Western Eye-Early Contemporary Chinese Painting Collection by Mr. and Mrs. Juergen Fischer， April 2006.

Provenance：
Private Collection of Mr. Juergen Ludwig and Mrs. Marei Fischer；
Private Collection， Europe.

Opening the Window between Soul and Nature –The Spirit in Hong Ling’s Landscape Oil Paintings
In an artistic career that spans over thirty years， Hong Ling has produced works imbued with profound images of verdant greenery or falling snow. Every brush stroke is a rich representation of his artistic perception of nature and understanding of life， making his works both a vessel of beauty and also a conveyer of vitality.
Born to a scholarly family， Hong is well travelled and steeped in both traditional Chinese and Western cultures. With his ancestral home in the plateau of Western Yunnan province， a heroic air peculiar to the northerners runs in his veins. Later he led a secluded life in the drizzly Jiangnan for years， living through the seasons and observing every tiny and major change in life. Amidst the southward flow of things， Hong has enjoyed a freer and richer space for his spirit to grow. In his decades of tireless exploration of the language of painting， Hong has successfully given the intangible “atmosphere” in painting a rich texture， breaking the convention that only Chinese painting emphasizes qiyun （aura） and finding the way of integrating qi （atmosphere） and xiang （image） between the figurative and the abstract.
As one of the first artists to represent China at the Venice Biennale， Hong has won numerous prestigious awards with his works in several annual China oil painting exhibitions， gaining worldwide recognition from his various solo and group exhibitions in Paris， Singapore and South Korea. This Spring， China Guardian Hong Kong is honoured to feature two emblematic works from different eras of Hong’s career： A Country House in the Mountains （1989） and The Old Garden （2003-06）. The works chronicle how the artist’s style is formed， transformed and comes into sophistication through the exploration of a single theme as well as the changes in different geographical locations and the languages of painting. They are also a faithful representation of how the artist has reflected on and transformed himself technically and psychologically.
A Country House in the Mountains： Introspection in Landscape Oil Paintings
A Country House in the Mountains was painted in 1989， a pivotal year for Hong’s transition and finding his position in the artisitic pursuit. At the time， Hong gravitated more towards the Chinese than the Western approach to painting and art making. At the beginning of the 1990s， he made a complete break from the confused， experimental stage and resolutely returned to tradition. He made the marriage of East and West his signature by conveying the spirit of Chinese landscape in the form of oil paintings.
In A Country House in the Mountains， the low house， soaring trees and the verdant valley are so rich in colours and layers that the boundaries between subjects are very clearly defined. Under the azure blue sky， the lush and dense trees intersect with the vines entwined around their thick trunks. The low white house exudes a natural and primal air under the shades of the trees. Hong at the time attached great importance to the beauty of ink in Chinese paintings， as evident in the liberal splash of black pigments in his work， with the shapes of trees clearly outlined. At first glance， it conjures up an aura of traditional Chinese landscape paintings， but upon a closer look， it is pregnant with textures of brush strokes and volume of oil paintings. The colour tone of the painting has also been deliberately treated as such that it is filled with religious grief and oozes a rustic feeling. The wood and trees of his creation are solid and abundant with a strong character， to which there is an added quaintness of the Orient. This is where his bold and yet delicate sketching style stemmed from.
The Old Garden： Dynamism and Profundity
Hong Ling’s creative language has undergone further changes since 2008： The outlines of subjects become more blurred than ever with abstract elements gaining increasing prominence. The aura of Chinese paintings has also deepened with an added sense of serenity. Hong’s mastery of Chinese landscape painting in the form of oil painting had also reached near-perfection at that point. In his large-scale work The Old Garden completed in 2006， the artist portrayed the come-and-go of four seasons with the delicacy of a poet. He favoured a light touch of the brush to portray the hamonious beauty of nature； the rich layers of greens look lush against the sky in light blue， while the green comes alive as the silhouettes of trees interweave. The artist geniously employed the technique of “smudging” in Oriental ink painting to highlight the different shades of green. At close inspection， each brush stroke is complementary to the last one and enhances each other， culminating in the portrayal of a grandiose landscape as envisaged in Hong’s mind. The monochromatic grey at the top of the painting resembles the concept of “void” in Chinese paintings in that it opens a visual breathing space in the grand and complex piece， achieving an optimal degree of tightness and looseness in Chinese paintings aesthetics.
Combining the essence of Chinese paintings that “the appearance stems from the mind” and the rich textures and techniques of oil painting itself， Hong， at a time when materialism is at the heart of everything in reality， is dedicated to following in the footsteps of old-generation artists such as Lin Fengmian in East-West integration. Unswerving in his conviction that landscape can be manifested through oil paintings， the quiet and sure-footed Hong has crafted a beauty of enlightenment and purity.

Price estimate:
HKD： 450,000 - 600,000
USD： 57,900 - 77,200

Auction Result:
HKD: 531,000