Acrylic and paper mounted on canvas

182.5×182.5 cm 71 7/8×71 7/8 in

Signed in Chinese on bottom right
PROVENANCE
Private collection， Asia

The other work Fissuring Scenery： Sunglow accomplished in 2012， is a sheer manifestation of the artist’s talented techniques in artistic expression. He used a mix of colorful pigments in his depiction of sunlight-coronated mountain terrains to work out a larger-than-life scene. As with his other paintings in the Fissuring series， he made a breakthrough by applying pigments ahead of rice paper backing， not only enduing rice paper， as a conventional carrier of Chinese painting， with a renewed life span but also adding a glossy selection of fancy base hues onto the final production. As most would agree， the misty greenness shrouding mountainous ripples seems like a shawl of sober self-possession， setting off a screenful of colored warmth. The artist juggled a combination of gold foils and colored pigments to build up quaint veins and textures， highlighting the robust clouds and securing a visually powerful impact.
These two paintings， one characterized by ink-painted mountains clad in clouds while the other featuring a twinkling galaxy of sunshine rays， speak volumes for the artist’s sublime techniques in painting production and his kaleidoscopic repertoire of artistic insights. Dexterously， he encapsulates worldly lives in the flesh into mountains and waters， incubates visual harmony as a result of organic fissuring and crystallizes wonderment from his dispensing with the old ways， thus presenting the world with a fresh perspective on ink painting which bridges the gap between east and west.

Born in Shanghai in 1948， Qiu Deshu was apprenticed in his boyhood years to master painters of the Shanghaiese school and commenced his artistic career in the capacity of “painter for the working class” during the Cultural Revolution period. Later， he also pioneered certain avant-garde movements in the country’s art circles. For instance， in 1979 he had participated in the launch of the then cutting-edge “Grass Society”， which was an independent organization of artistic experimentation and hired him as one of its first members， wondrously shattering those shackles imposed by the devastatingly woebegone decade of the Cultural Revolution. In 1985 he was invited to give lectures and paint murals in Tufts University， Harvard University and the University of Arizona in succession. It was during these stints when he made his first encounter with quite different arts hailing from the Occident， preparing him in readiness for a subsequent exploration into his characteristic realm of artistic creation with a focus on “fissuring”. Throughout his 3-decade-odd practice of twists and turns， Qiu has managed a fusion of his skills derived from both traditional Chinese painting and the modern ink painting， presented an utterly new system of ink painting thanks to his gigantic talent and preeminent creativity and succeeded in injecting new air into the time-honored space of Chinese ink painting， based on his masterful “east-meets-west” techniques.
In 1982， Qiu Deshu was accidently inspired by some fissures in a worn slab stone and thus driven to commence his choreographed “fissure” between the usual modality of painting and the accepted pictorial language. He blended hues with ink to develop an unfamiliar color mix and apply it onto the underlying scroll， before placing a sheet of nice paper unto the compact for fissuring purposes. When unveiling the duly fissured production， he kept on daubing pigments so as to materialize the 4 dissimilar steps of outlining， fissuring， integration and mounting in a systematic manner. As a result， his paintings feature not only the widely-recognized aesthetic of conventional materials， but also a visually stunning experience of precision in terms of artistic expression.

Price estimate:
HKD: 500,000 – 800,000
USD: 64,100 – 102,600

Auction Result:
HKD: 590,000