Oil on canvas

117 x 117 cm. 46 x 46 in.

Stamped with an artist's seal, and signed in English on middle right
EXHIBITED
1 – 31 Mar 2019, Over the Rainbow, Eslite Gallery, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

Calm as Sea, Hot as Fire
Ku Fu-sheng: Seeking Tranquillity in Body and Soul
Ku Fu-Sheng started studying under the tutelage of Chu Teh-Chun in 1952. Encouraged by Chu, Ku made his way into the Department of Fine Arts at the National Taiwan Normal University in 1954 for formal art education. In 1957, he joined the Fifth Moon Group to push for the development of Chinese modern art. Ku gradually grew into a representative of Taiwanese modern art with his works frequently featured at joint exhibitions and his international fame thanks in part to the Honourable Mention from Sao Paulo Biennial. Ku moved to the United States in 1962. He held solo exhibitions at venues like Taipei Fine Arts Museum and New York's Sather Gate. He usually projects his thoughts onto characters with slim figure and places them against a surrealist background. For this auction, let's look at his two paintings, one created in the 1990s and the other after 2000, to explore the philosophy that underlies his creation process.

The Flame in Universe
In Life in Space (Lot 63), a nude man is following the two frontrunners, jumping into the dazzling flame given off by the burning sun in the vast expanse of universe. The artist used pure black to depict the boundless cosmos and underscored the lighting conditions through the orange-black contrast. The subject, despite still sitting in the dark, is embracing the light head on. He neither looks back nor forward, but rather keeps his chin down as if saying goodbye to the past and perhaps for fear of being hurt by the flame. It shows Ku's ultimate pursuit of the artistic balance between fervour and peacefulness.

The Freedom in Water
Finished in 2013, Abundance (Lot 62) is not only one of Ku's few pieces that is round in shape, but also the only such painting by the artist available in the market. There is a young man swimming in an Earth-resembling aquarium happily with goldfish and koi fish. Water is a widely used element across Ku's oeuvre. In many of his works, men are swimming with agile fish by their side. It may be the case that water has the ability to help the artist temporarily set aside concerns about his social labels and surrounding world and freely express his deep thoughts to present his mental utopia.

Price estimate:
HKD: 180,000 – 250,000
USD: 23,000 – 31,900

Auction Result:
HKD: --