Acrylic on canvas

71 x 161.5 cm. 27 1/2 x 63 5/8 in.

Signed and titled in English, dated on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Important Private Collection, Asia

Vivid and Diverse Representations, Manifesting the Phenomenal
The Grandeur of Yang Chihung's Art

In the 1980s, contemporary art in the Western world entered a new era where various forms of art were blossoming. The open atmosphere encouraged Yang Chihung, who immigrated to New York in 1979, to explore and experiment with a variety of art creations at will. With an acute sense of Western art and Eastern art, he incorporated their essence masterfully, and became the first Chinese artist that got awarded by MoMA P.S.1 to the National Studio Program in 1984. In 1989 he was granted the Outstanding Asian American Artist Award by the Governor of New York and soon became a leading Chinese artist among his fellows in New York. Yang has a worldwide exhibiting experience. To date, he has held over 50 solo exhibitions in France, Italy, U.S., Japan, Beijing, Taiwan and other locations, and been featured in more than 100 joint exhibitions. With his fame across the globe, his artworks have been collected by significant museums, such as the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, Singapore Art Museum and Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

During his art career for over a half century, his pondering over art revolved around the discussion about the origins of life, which also witnessed his gradual transition from realistic art to abstract art. Volatility (Lot 92) and Miraculous Land (Lot 91) presented are his outstanding works from the Botanical Aesthetics series and the Eastern Poetics series respectively. The overt sweeping force and the implicit layers of tension both manifest the abundant, energetic force by the vivid and diverse representations.

Refreshed and Vigorous, the Poem of Vegetation's Space

Volatility (1999) is a witness of Yang's transformation to abstract style in his Botanical Aesthetics series. He builds up an enriched visual crisscross and a three-dimensional quality by brushstrokes featured with the form and texture of vines, fruits, and stems. In around 1998 he devoted himself to Organic Abstract Expressionism in the approach of metaphysics, which demonstrates unspoken emotions and the implications of time and space. On the canvas of Volatility, Yang places two plump purple fruits to the left as the starting point, and the unleashed stems are led to splash along. Assimilating the essence of calligraphy, he narrates the different dimensions and stages of life by drawing the stems with light brushstrokes. Robust lines spread above the tortuous texture, which pilots the plants to grow towards the vast dimension of space and time. The solid lines are interwoven with the intermittent lines, delineating the intersection of nature and spirit and nurturing further the splendid, romantic sentiments.

Tiger versus Dragon, the Profoundness under the Brush

Since 2011, Yang has set his sights on the representation of the intricate mental world. Inspired by the Abstract Expressionism movement in New York, he transforms the vibrant brushstrokes originated from calligraphy and the variable hues and colours into a narrative of the mental world. This is exactly the feature of his Eastern Poetics series. He deliberately chooses a wide landscape composition for Miraculous Land (2015) and expresses the sense of generosity of life with striking, unrestrained calligraphies, so as to display the grandeur created with the joint black and yellow strokes. The rapid strokes converge toward the center horizontally as if the scene of a dragon and a tiger fighting each other fiercely, their roars brought out by the swift brushstrokes. The free, cursive calligraphic strokes lead the abrupt changes momentarily, while they also submerge in the center of the painting along with the appearance of the bright light. There in the center meet the ink and colors, the solid and the abstract, and rapid and the sluggish, yin and yang. They assimilate into each other, merge into an entity in the collision, and deliver a sense of tranquility and generosity after the surge.

Price estimate:
HKD: 220,000 – 320,000
USD: 28,400 – 41,300

Auction Result:
HKD: 448,400