Heavy colour on silk

89.5 x 60 cm.35 1/4 x 23 5/8 in.

Signed in the center
HAO LIANG
(b.1983-)
As a force to be reckoned with among artists born in the 1980s, Hao Liang has prompted further reconsideration of New Ink Art with his esoteric paintings that are fraught with allusions. In the way it is presented by the young artist, New Ink Art is not just about innovation but about rediscovering greatness from the tradition and about finding reincarnations of ancient art in artistic practice while keeping in sight relevance with contemporary culture and filling in gaps in contemporary art. This is truly a star among his peers who provides new possibilities for contemporary Chinese ink painting.

There have been many turning points in Hao’s career in the name of experiment and breakthrough. In the years 2010 and 2011, he made a clear-cut departure by moving from the Bright to the sombre, from the plain to the obscure, and from westernization to reviving the tradition. From then on, he consolidated his creative language to become what is seen today. Dated 2011, the present lot, with its tranquillity and illusory representation, evidences that the artist was already embarking on a new phase. Gestated for years since 2008, the present lot is making its first formal appearance this spring since it had been snatched into private collection upon completion with such great pains.

The painting pays tribute to the philosophical ideals of Neo-Confucianism embraced by the bird-and-flower painters of the Song dynasty in its depiction of plants and rocks. On the one hand, it preserves the elegance of Huang Quan in the refined portrayal and, on the other, celebrates the spontaneity of Xu Xi in the subtle colours. In blending the traits of these iconic masters into a single painting, Hao has succeeded in doing justice to Xu Xi, whose style was suppressed in the Northern Song. Outlined in white, the deer is covered in fine hair delineated meticulously with the centre-tip of the painting brush. The plants that show through give the deer’s body a faint glow, reminding the viewer that this scene of a deer cub looking back in a spring meadow is nothing but a fantasy conjured up by the artist.

Seminal paintings of deer in art history are arguably Herd of Deer in an Autumnal Grove, attributed to Li Zanfang of the Five Dynasties period, and Herd of Deer in a Maple Grove, attributed to a Liao artist. Both of these two works are in the realist tradition expounded by Huang Quan and cherished by the imperial painting academy of the Northern Song. Colours are carefully applied layer by layer to the motifs which are outlined in fine vigorous strokes. On account of the multiple perspective characteristic of traditional Chinese painting, the herd appears to be translucent and hence illusory. By contrast, although likewise illusory, Hao’s deer is informed by Western one-point perspective and is anatomically precise. Despite the fact that only the fur is described, the muscle and skeleton underneath can clearly be made out.

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

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,035,000