Ink and color on paper

93×93 cm 36 5/8×36 5/8 in

Signed and dated with artist’s seals on middle right and bottom right

LITERATURE
Apr 2014, Liu Kuosong, Lotus Art Gallery, Kaohsiung, p.52-53
PROVENANCE
Private collection， AsiaThe refinement of top skills in Chinese landscape painting is never better manifested elsewhere than in Towering Mountains， Gurgling Brooks， a timeless masterpiece by Fan Kuan， a well-known Chinese painter in the ancient Song Dynasty. In this painting， visually colossal mountains protrude their weightiness in the middle section， hogging almost the entire width and height of the picture scroll. Thickets capping the mountain tops are interspersed with churning waterfalls which splatter onto unswerving boulders at mountainous feet. The resultant look not only impresses with an august complexity， but also represents， more importantly， the traditional “world outlook” of the Orient： the formidable nature creates and nurtures， whilst the humankind flickers and fleets. Hundreds of thousands of artists have taken inspiration from such a mentality which has come down across a dozen centuries， thus far.
Among them is Liu Kuosong， who had his first visual experience of this magnum opus in 1960 when the then Taipei Palace Museum was exhibiting， as a trailer， a motley selection of cultural relics that were about to show up in an exhibition in the US. Stunned and shocked， he later remarked that “Standing there in front of it， I felt those mountains， formidable beyond any words， were coming at me with all their might. It was merely irresistible and utterly overpowering. Yet it also injected something deep and potent into me， there and then， and touched the right chord in me with much precision. Like an immense magnet it drew， absorbed and reconstructed me. And I felt I did undergo torrents of good vibes running through my body， mind and soul”. Impelled by such an overwhelming telepathy， he bid farewell resolutely to grease paint and canvas of the western genre which he had been well acquainted with through years of training and practice， and swerved to consider how to work out artistic wonders out of seemingly mundane subjects by means of brand-new techniques and media， on the basis of the intrinsic workmanlike spirit in the domain of Chinese landscaping painting.
Idiographic Techniques of Deeper Sentiment
During his incessant experiments and attempts running through the half century， Liu Kuosong drew inspirations from the craft paper used to make paper lanterns， which drove him to conjure up his own skill of “artful chapping”. He applied ink onto his custom-made paper abounding in thicker fibers before pulling out all these fibers to the effect that many a white line was caused to remain on the surface. In addition， by means of employing two-sided method of ink brushing， the artist has enabled himself to work out an idiographic effect of visual expanse and textured landscaping without using traditional brush-and-ink techniques. Such a wizardly liberation of traditionally confined techniques has empowered each of his works with a well-balanced combo of structural rationality and sentimental profundity. The piece titled Crossing Mountains， which is now put up at auction， was accomplished by him in 2013 and has been a typical incarnation of his stylistically unique techniques.
Seeming to have taken inspiration from the Wintery Woods -another celestial piece done by the Fan Kuan， this painting presents a visually fertile landscape characterized by undulating mountains. Structured creatively on a square-shaped scroll， which is an utter rarity in the domain of traditional landscape painting， this work features up to 3 ripples of mountain ranges looking somewhat alike in coloring yet differing markedly in height. Mountainous terrains deployed in the lowermost section are depicted with a comparatively thick layer of reddish yellow pigment of dissimilar shades， presenting a larger-than-life scene of wooded lands. Across the middle section lies an impressive craggy legion of peaks and cliffs， against a heightened backdrop of wooded lands and terrains， covered copiously by snow. Higher up is a floating stretch of fog which skirts a riveting clutch of hardly-inhabited yet deadly arresting mountaintops， standing up there with certain sublime stripes of glacier. Savoring such a scenery of epic beauty， many members of the audience have found themselves struck with instant awe for the magic power of the great nature while being reminded of how insignificant the humankind and its worldly concerns have appeared to be， in comparative terms.

Price estimate:
HKD: 600,000 – 800,000
USD: 76,900 – 102,600

Auction Result:
HKD: 708,000