Oil on canvas

40.5 × 51 cm. 16 x 20 1/8 in.

Stamped with one artist’s seal, and signed in English on middle right

LITERATURE
2008, Fu-sheng Ku, Eslite Gallery, Taipei, p. 34 and 74
EXHIBITED
2 – 24 Aug 2008, Fu-sheng Ku, Eslite Gallery, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Eslite Gallery, Taipei
Private Collection, Asia

Roaming Outside, Free and Unrestrained
Ku Fu-sheng’s Precious Debut Oil Painting
The main features of the unique artistic style of Ku Fu-sheng, one of the important figures of modern Taiwanese art, are abstract silhouettes, quirkiness, and rich textures, and by expressing his inner feelings through painting, this artist unknowingly affected the lives of writers such as Pai Hsien-yung and Echo.
Ku’s Sobrecarregado was a sensation during the 1961 Bienal de São Paulo, and it won numerous awards. Simultaneously, he became the first member of the Fifth Moon Group to hold a solo exhibition. The same year, he travelled to Paris to study under the tutelage of master Chu Teh-Chun. Even though most Chinese painters were still focused on exploring abstract ink painting at that time, Ku firmly chose it as his one way of practice. In the following decades, he lived in many places, including New York, San Francisco, and Portland, yet his artistic creation has never been interrupted. His works are interpretations of human-centered existentialism with very high universal value, all rooted in a modern fantasy realm.
Watchmen in the Long Night:
Surge of thoughts from the Cyan Period
Ku began his career in the sixties, when the traditional and the modern were in constant collision. Sitting High(Lot679), one of the prominent pieces of this spring auction, is one of the first works to feature abstract silhouettes. It is an early oil painting by Ku and a rarity on the market, as it marks an important transformation of the artist’s creative path.
In Sitting High, Ku uses strong black shades to depict a standing male silhouette, inspired by his dear friend, Pai Hsien-yung. This work is different from other Cyan Period paintings, as the artist intentionally gave up all figurative elements, giving the abstract torso vitality reminiscent of the temperament in Alberto Giacometti’s Walking Man. Ku smudged the black background with thick whites so that it became a mix of colors, creating a mottled and complex texture. Thanks to this technique, the black protagonist looks as if he might be standing under the sky, and this is very similar to the cover art Ku created for Pai Hsien-yung’s novel, Lonely Seventeen. Sitting High gives testimony to the difficulties and internal conflicts Taiwanese society went through during its course of modernization and development, yet it also embodies perseverance and inspires courage. This work is strongly anchored to reality and has great historical meaning.
Self-exile, Spiritual Song:
Oil Paintings of the New Times
During the late eighties, when the trends of the sixties had already passed, Ku entered a new era of creation. His creative style and media became more abundant, but he kept faithful to the themes of people’s gatherings, bids of farewell, and sexual passion. For example, A Beautiful Experience(Lot680), created in 1998, depicts a colorful world of blooming flowers. In the picture, two floating male silhouettes dance in the air among gigantic red and yellow flowers that open against a blue background. The intensive colors and top-down perspective, characteristic of Fauvism, create an absurd, surreal scene that reflects the coexistence of freedom and confusion in contemporary society. A different example, Another Day In the Sun(Lot678), shows a seaside landscape where there is no boundary between the ocean and the sky, and a lone silhouette floats on its back toward an island, full of ease, joy, and an unconstrained enjoyment of summer.

Price estimate:
HKD: 30,000 - 50,000
USD: 3,800 - 6,400

Auction Result:
HKD: 37,760