Acrylic on corrugated board

211 x 94 x 5 cm. (each) 211 x 306 x 5 cm. (four overlapping panels)；83 x 37 x 2 7/8 in. (each) 83 x 120 1/2 x 2 7/8 in. (four overlapping panels)

Signed in Chinese and English and dated on the reverse

LITERATURE
2004, All Under Heaven: China Now!, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, p. 109
2005, Wang Xingwei Collection, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing
2006, Touching the Stones: China Kunst Heute, Buchhandlung Walther Koenig, Koln, p. 252
2013, Wang Xingwei Solo Exhibition, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, p. 166-167
EXHIBITED
20 Mar – 30 May 2004, All Under Heaven: Ancient and Contemporary Chinese art – The Collection of the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp
19 May – 18 Aug 2013, Wang Xingwei Solo Exhibition, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing
30 Jan – 10 Mar 2015, Blowing Up: New Chinese Paintings of Post-Era of Economic, Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing

PROVENANCE
Chinese Century Gallery, Paris
6 Oct 2014, Sotheby's Hong Kong Autumn Auction, Lot 793
Important Private Collection, Asia

Overturn of Concept, Illusion in Real
“New Painting” of Wang Xingwei

“I would sacrifice the painting nature of my works, so that they can shine in their meanings and concepts.”
—Wang Xingwei

Since the middle of 1990s, Wang Xingwei started a sensational view of painting with his sensitive perceptions and simple but manifold images. Seriously after the 85 New Wave, he began his artistic career. His works reveals the hidden connection between the viewers and the artist himself, also embeds a delicate interaction between tradition and the modern culture. Biennale de Lyon and Shanghai Biennale saw his works went into public sight continuously. Collected by various art institutions and collectors globally, including Rubell Family Collection, Erlenmeyer Fund, Minsheng Art Museum, M+, his artworks contribute a lot to the inheritance and innovation of Chinese modern art on the international art stage.

Experiment on the “Physicalness” of Corrugated Board
In his creation over twenty years, Wang Xingwei have been renovating his image-language, by taking “design” as the kernel of painting and recombine the recognizing system of different fields. He introduces the classic images from multiple traditions to create scenes with more tension. By breaking the canonical art forming styles of those original cultures, Wang's creating process provides new possibilities in the search of “Physicalness” in a two-dimensional world, inspiring the traditions in modern cultures.

Wang Xingwei created six works on corrugated board from 2001 to 2004. The largest one of them, Football Field, was created in 2003 and acquired by Mr and Mrs Ullens right after its finish. Later in 2004, it firstly appeared in the public in the The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation Collection held by UCCA, which was a landmark of the significance of the rising Chinese modern art in the global art world. Football Field was even highlighted in his solo exhibition organized in 2013, representing his achievement in the retrospective. Also, as a key work in the development of new painting, this painting uniquely possesses a high academic value.

The Meeting of Images across Time
Wang Xingwei paid great attention to the Landscape for a long time. Not only did he manipulate the familiar surrounding like the American artist Thomas Kinkade, he also experimented a lot on technic and composition with varied themes.

In the painting, Wang Xingwei paints a football field on the corrugated board. Neither virtual scene nor role play is seen this time. Instead, he applies simple and accurate naturalism, illustrating the overlap and inter-reference between reality and the virtual world. White lines and the green turf come smoothly and neatly, which shares the similar effect of Hard-Edge back in 1950s. The colors spread flatly in simple contrast, with a meticulous sense of Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Stella in their Colour-field painting practice. Since the painting is a material based creation, the different fiber floating condition in horizontal and vertical directions possesses manifold meanings naturally. The stick out part over the cross section of fiberboards grows into the texture of football turf, reflecting the growth of plants in real world. This relief-like effect expand the image of the painting boundlessly, enabling the work to float on the background with the depth-illusion constructed. Creating a boundless world within limited frame in this artwork is the exact trick in the “Physicalness” experiment of Wang, showing us the beauty belonging to the physical nature of the materials.

Price estimate:
HKD: 1,000,000 – 1,500,000
USD: 127,500 – 191,300

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,416,000