Oil on canvas

129 × 161cm. 50 3/4 x 63 3/8 in.

Signed in Chinese and dated on bottom left
PROVENANCE
7 Oct 2007, Sotheby's Hong Kong Autumn Auctions, Lot 525
Private Collection, Asia

A Beautiful Process
Wang Yunhe's Landscape of the Mind

Wang Yunhe was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province in 1939, but grew up in Shanghai. He dedicated his life to producing Western style painting, using abstract brushwork to narrate urban landscapes through complex layering. Many of Wang's works have been collected by such important institutions as the National Art Museum of China and Shanghai Art Museum, making him a rare example in the modern art history of China of an artist who was unwavering in his pursuit of abstract painting.

Resplendence of the Great Hermit in the City

In the painting Landscape, Wang smears and accumulates different thicknesses of pale pinkish blue paint on the canvas. On the left side of the work we can see a sharp linear structure in the shape of the Eiffel Tower and in the right half of the painting a triangular shape that resembles an ancient Egyptian pyramid. These two classic structures from the Western world are hidden within a patchwork of short brushstrokes, while the fine strokes that take up the entire canvas allude to scenes of hustle and bustle and modern cities filled with endless traffic. It also echoes the style of ancient solemn buildings, speaking to the richness and depth of the artist's humanism.

Tranquility of the Small Hermit in the Countryside

If we look at the painting in more detail, the swirling ripples of water are reminiscent of Water Lilies by French painter Claude Monet. The light yellow and bright green of the flowers, branches and leaves floating on the light purple surface of the lake, combine with the fine brushwork to create a powerful sense of rhythm that reveals the poetic sentimentality of the flowering lilies. The urgent horizontal short lines in the lower part of the work are like a series of canoes. Through this abstract composition, Wang Yunhe expresses an Eastern-Western aesthetic, using illusory and changeable natural scenery to showcase his richly keen inner world and in that moment vividly revealing a beautiful process.

Price estimate:
HKD: 250,000 – 350,000
USD: 32,300 – 45,200

Auction Result:
HKD: --