Stainless steel sculpture

93.5 x 51 x 41 cm. 36 3/4 x 20 1/8 x 16 1/8 in.

Signed in Chinese on bottom right
Edition: 2/3 A.P


EXHIBITED
8 Dec 2017 – 8 Feb 2018, La French Touch, Amanda Wei Gallery, Hong Kong

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity with signature of the artist issued by Amanda Wei Gallery, Hong Kong

An adult fairy tale from the heavens of B612
Shen Jingdong's Little Prince and Fox
Shen Jingdong was born in 1965 in Nanjing and graduated from Nanjing Arts Institute in 1991, and prior to becoming an artist, he served in the military for nearly 20 years. In his Worker-Peasant Solider and Hero series he developed in 2003, Shen depicts soldiers and heroes in the form of ceramic cartoon figures. Beneath their attractive façades, these figures were deeply trapped by an inner emotional form of imprisonment. In a humorous way, they serve as a tacit rebellion against the ideological education system mandated by the government. These works were exhibited at the Shanghai Museum of Modern Art and Nanjing Municipal Museum, with solo exhibitions taking place at the Rouse Company Foundation Gallery and Whitebox Art Center in the U.S. and the Today Art Museum in Beijing. Shen's exhibitions have been widely recognized by art circles around the globe.
In 2014, Shen's works took a significant turn — transitioning from plane painting to three-dimensional sculpture. Created using stainless steel, he developed a brand-new series entitled Little Prince. The theme of this series was inspired by the famous French fairy tale The Little Prince, which Shen translated into a more modern context. This auction features two related sculptural works, Little Prince, Lot 121 and Fox, Lot 122, and both are representative of the artist's unique creative style.
A Patience of Purity
Little Prince was carefully crafted using silvery white stainless steel. The prince's face maintains the characteristic persona seen in Shen's Worker–Peasant–Soldier series. However, in contrast, the prince wears a robe and knee-high boots and adorns a star on each of his shoulders, giving him an air of almost coming from a fairy tale. The prince stands upon a small rock, with one hand on his hip and the other holding a sword with a bell guard, appearing as if he is standing on the B612 asteroid described in The Little Prince. With his unique artistic perspective and oriental thinking, Shen Jingdong managed to create a delicate and distinctive “Little Prince”, a manifestation of an adult's imagination that no doubt keeps the fairy tale alive.
Sparkling Wheat Field of Gold
In Fox, Shen Jingdong employed clean, smooth lines to shape the fox's delicate posture into a lifelike form. The artist used specially made galvanized steel plates to create a glossy finish that changes colors, presenting a true-to-life manifestation of a fox with its unique characteristics. In the story of The Little Prince, the fox teaches the little prince how to tame it with the sincerity of his heart. Shen polished and galvanized the stainless steel to give the Fox a radiant golden dazzling luster from all angles. The effect of the luster serves as a beautiful testament to these two characters' encounter, and it is undeniably able to touch the hearts of every reader of the classic novella.

Price estimate:
HKD: 80,000 - 150,000
USD: 10,200 - 19,100

Auction Result:
HKD : 94,400