Ink and colour on paper

90×61.5 cm. 35 3/8×24 1/4 in

Signed, titled and dated on reverse

LITERATURE
Aug 2008, Niubi Newbie Kids, Schoeni Gallery, Hong Kong, p.31
EXHIBITED
4 Jun – 24 Jul 1994, Chao Chung-Hsiang Posthumous Work Exhibition, National Taiwan Museum of Art, Taichung

PROVENANCE
Important Private Collection, Asia

A Life of Adversity in Exchange for Unrestrained Glory
The Art World of Chao Chung-Hsiang
Chao Chung-Hsiang immigrated to the United States in 1958 and took up residence in New York City, where he would live for the next 30 years. In New York, a city recognized for leading many global art trends, Chao had the opportunity to get to know abstract expressionist painters Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Mark Rotjko, not to mention renowned pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. During their regular gatherings, they would often share important insights with each other concerning their works, thus helping Chao Chung-Hsiang develop a more profound and avant-garde perspective on Western and Eastern art. The artist attempted to break the convention in traditional Chinese art of “mentally conceiving the entire image beforehand”, as he believed that artistic creation should be spontaneous and improvised. He has a gift, through techniques such as deliberately splashing ink or watercolors, for incorporating symbols of literary and philosophical significance into his works, and in this way, he is able to effectively convey the essence of traditional Chinese culture at the same time as providing the beholder with a unique visual experience.
In Pure Rainbow （1987）, Chao uses concentric circles in a spectrum of different colors as a means of creating a vivid contrast with the painting’s backdrop： a grove of bamboo shoots, where depth is represented using different concentrations of ink. This flourish demonstrates that the artist did not have a specific image in mind before he began painting； rather, he used improvisation as a means of emphasizing the distinction between the external subject and his inner world. By doing so, Chung-Hsiang has therefore brought new life and imagination to a commonly seen subject of traditional Chinese painting.
Chao Chun-Hsiang has been an avid bird lover for as long as he can remember. As a young boy, he would often take birds that had been separated from their nests home and raise them, and after moving to New York, Chao took an even greater interest in the subject of aviculture. To him, birds were more than just a subject for his work. He seems to use them quite often as a symbol or representation of himself. For instance, in Parental Love （a work that he created in Miaoli, Taiwan, at a late stage in his career）, Chao Chun-Hsiang has, next to the large patch of ink that runs down the canvas on the left, used concentric circles as a means of representing two differently shaped, large-beaked birds. These birds appear to be protecting a fledgling under their wings, the yellow halo above the birds symbolizing the lifelong concern that parents have for their little ones. At the top of the painting, the words “parental love” are written in Chinese, further demonstrating the degree to which Chun-Hsiang, who resided abroad for half his life, valued and missed his parents.
Much like an ascetic monk, Chao Chun-Hsiang endured immense loneliness and adversity throughout much of his life, but the experience has indeed turned him into a great artist. By researching and experimenting with different schools of Western and Eastern painting, he ultimately succeeded in developing a unique artistic style. In this sense, one can easily draw an analogy between his life and the scene he depicts in Love Birds. A bird flaps its wings, preparing to take off into the sky, symbolizing the uncertainty of the future. Although the bird knows that many dangers lie ahead, it nonetheless strikes up the courage to carry onward.

Price estimate:
HKD: 110, 000 - 180, 000
USD: 14, 100 - 23, 100

Auction Result:
HKD: 330,400