Oil on canvas

51.5 × 87.5 cm. 20 1/4 × 34 1/2 in.

Signed in Chinese and English, and dated on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, USA
31 May 2015, Christie's Hong Kong Spring Auction, Lot 410
Acquired by important present private Asian collector from the above

The Glory of Life, the Poetry of Asia
A Signature Work of Both Concrete and Abstract Art by Shiy De-Jinn

Looking through the life-long creation of Shiy De-Jinn, it can be found that this artist is almost an all-round artist. His artwork ranges from oil painting, watercolour, Chinese watercolour, calligraphy, as well as sketching, Whether it is pure abstract creation or an absolute concrete work, he masters them evenly well. All the way along the path of “the Modernization of Chinese Fine Art” in his life, Shiy has given grant and specific contribution to it.

The Abstract Art of China

In Shiy's early work, oil painting takes an important part. The artist started to try this medium from 1948 and mainly focused on the creation of portraits, in which he puts his observation of local culture and custom. “The Goose Seller”, made in 1956, was one of the examples, This work, being the representative of Taiwan, was taken to participate the 1957 São Paulo Art Biennial in Brazil, which became the opportunity for Shiy to gain his reputation. However, the artist's improvement did not just stop there. In the end of 1950s, when there was a new trend of art in the Western world about abstract expressionism, Shiy gave his specific response. His creation stepped into a new critical period of transition starting from 1957, going deeply into the genre of abstract art. The work that is for the auction here, “Abstraction”, is a representative of this period.

“Abstraction” was completed in 1962, the year that witnessed Shiy's glorious career development. In August that year, the only 38-year-old artist was invited by the United States Department of State, along with his senior, the 60-year-old Liao Chi-chun, to have a joint exhibition in United States Information Agency (USIA). Being in New York for the first time, the young artist got deeply impressed by the trend of Pop and Op Art that was highly popular there. The fascination he experienced from Western culture made him re-think how he, being a Chinese artist, should express his art and philosophy. The answer is found in the work of “Abstraction”.

The Flowing Passion, the Evergreen Life

In his writings, Shiy has expresses more than once the spontaneity being Chinese and the responsibility to lead Chinese art to march forward. In “Abstraction”, he made the canvas by himself into an uncommon size with extra width, looking like a scroll of a traditional Chinese water colour. Seeing through the layers of powerful strokes made by big brushes, the stack of thick colours creates a shining and dazzling world of red, demonstrating a passion as heated as fire. In the middle of the painting, on top of the round shape that is a combination of azure blue, violet and black, there are lines of radial shape created by pallet knives. As well as giving the painting a richer texture, this design also depicts how the centre of power, as a combination of the sun and moon, releases light and heat. On the periphery of this item, there is a colourful ring of vivid active yellow, blue and purple, made by the artist with wiping technique, visually empowering the radiation. The colours used in the work have a strong characteristic of China, as it dated back to the royal palaces in Ming or Qing dynasties, with orange red painting the walls and pillars, blue and green the beams and noble bright yellow the glazed tiles. Shiy obtains a deep understanding of Chinese traditional architecture and folklore, based on what he abstracted the wisdom and aesthetics of how this ancient nation manipulates colours.

The exploration Shiy had towards abstract art extended as long as ten years. From 1957 to 1968, he created a series that belong to this school, yet actually as rare as less than 90 works, according to statistics. Among them, all the relatively early works were done with only colours and lines. However, after 1964, the artist started applying elements such as geometrical bodies of op art, Chinese papercut, simplified figures of deities and traditional features of Han rubbings into his composition. Pure abstract art hence only appeared within the window of his creation between 1959 and 1963 – as brief as 4 years, leaving works less than 30 behind him. This series, being undoubtfully the rarest of his artwork, has around 90% already being collected by public galleries, leaving drastically few opportunities for private collection. Of the past 30 years, there were only 7 works that ever appeared in auctions. This time, the release of “Abstraction” is a treasure within treasure!

Price estimate:
HKD: 1,200,000 – 1,800,000
USD: 154,700 – 232,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,416,000