Watercolour on paper

Upper: 32 x 41cm.12 3/5 x 16 1/7 in.；Down: 27.2 x 38.8 cm.10 5/7 x 15 2/7 in.

Signed in English abbreviation on bottom right; titled and signed in Chinese on the reverse
Signed in English abbreviation on bottom left; titled and signed in Chinese on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

A Vivid and Poetic Description of One's Hometown
Hsiao Ju-Sung Natural Landscapes
“He used watercolors to show the joys and sorrows, love and hate of all people in the world. His works seem to be enigmatic and not easy to understand, but they incorporate deep emotions and vast imagery!”
— Katy Hsiu Chih Chien, Actco magazine president

Hsiao Ju-Sung graduated from the Hsinchu University of Education in 1942 and after that worked in the field of artistic education while persisting in creating art. He also won numerous honors as part of the Provincial Art Exhibition, the Tai-Yang Art Exhibition, the Qing-Yun Art Exhibition, and the Provincial Teacher's Art Exhibition. His works even received special approval from the Provincial Art Exhibition. In his early years, Hsiao was a student of Japanese art master Shiotsuki Toho, but later, inspired by revolutionary watercolorist Nakanishi Toshio, he started using watercolor as his main medium and further fused it with ink lines derived from the tradition of Chinese ink painting, creating his own, unique artistic style.

In the 1980s, Hsiao Ju-Sung began to implement the “deformer” art practice, which advocated removing all unnecessary details of a picture and retaining only the most characteristic elements. Even though he passed away in 1992, his work still exerts a great deal of influence. In 1993, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum held a retrospective exhibition of his classic works, and in 2007, Hsiao Ju-Sung Art Park was opened in Hsinchu. Taiwanese Landscape: Feifeng Mountain and Dahu Village (set of two pieces), created in 1989, embodies the unique “deformer” style of his later years.

Feifeng Mountain features Hsiao favorite blues and cyans. The artist used balanced watercolors to divide the picture into three parts: the sky, the mountains, and the fields. The blues and whites of the sky, deep indigo of the mountains after rain, and the dark green of the trees on the fields all blend harmoniously, like a melodious song sung by farmers. In Dahu Village, Hsiao utilized a freehand approach to depict the slopes in shades of brown, with dark greens resembling emeralds. There is a narrow gorge splitting the mountain, through which a bluish, sylvan scenery of a distant lake can be seen. While admiring the painting proficiency of Hsiao, one cannot help but sigh in appreciation of this adept sculptor of nature.

Price estimate:
HKD: 60,000 – 100,000
USD: 7,700 – 12,800

Auction Result:
HKD: 70,800