Oil and acrylic on canvas

167 × 127 cm. 65 3/4 × 50 in.

Signed in Chinese and dated on bottom left; titled in Chinese and dated on the reverse

LITERATURE
2005, Theme: Primal Form – An Exhibition of Chuang Che's Painting, National Museum of History, Taipei, p. 50
EXHIBITED
30 Sep – 30 Oct 2005, Theme: Primal Form – An Exhibition of Chuang Che's Painting, National Museum of History, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Important Private Collection, Asia

Variations on Landscapes, Brushes of Nature
Chuang Che's Abstract Poetry

“Between me and nature, let my rage run through the lifeline of nature. Listen to its submerged flow and silent cry.”
—— Chuang Che

Chuang Che was born in Peking in 1934. His father Chuang Yan served as the former president of the Palace Museum. Chuang Che has been fascinated by the essence of Oriental art since he was a child. After graduating from the Fine Arts Department of Taiwan Normal University in 1957, he joined the May Painting Society in the same year to actively promote the modernization of Chinese painting. At the same time, his artistic talent had been widely recognized. For example, he held a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Art in Taipei in 1965, and was funded by the Rockefeller III Foundation for study tours in the following year. Since the 1970s, he has lived in the United States. He has been influenced by the trend of abstract expressionism, and constantly making the self-breakthrough both in media and creative techniques, bringing us the abstract landscapes with freehand spirit. In recent years, he has held solo exhibitions at the National Museum of History in Taipei, the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, David Findley Jr. Gallery in New York, and many other places. He has fully shown his artistic achievements in nearly 50 years. His art journey from the United States to the current moment has attracted much attention.

When the Virtual and Real Interchange, Comprehend the Pride of the World

In 1972, Chuang moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he devoted himself to creation. Landscape (Lot 133) completed in 1978 is a mirror of his open-mindedness and the real scenery of the Ann Arbor.

The work uses a distinctly divided composition to create a strong tension between yin and yang, and the coexistence of virtual and real. The blank space presents the linen yellow background tone of the canvas. The black color on it is transformed by ink and wash, showing the free and tactful ink style. It is derived from the art of calligraphy strokes, breaking the monotony of oil paints, and showing the beauty of rich and changeable imagery. The white oil paint infiltrates the ink color to set off the visual sense of reality. There is also some blank space left intended by the artist to indicate the virtualness. This forms a combination of virtual and real. Through the strokes, viewers can sense the contraction and expansion of the aura and the invisible tao. The work carries the natural charm of creation with a vast expanse of visual space.

Forms of Landscape, Variations of Color

Inspired by Japanese Zen painting, the Variation on Sesshu's Broken Ink Landscape series launched in 2001 is another artistic peak of Chuang in recent years.

Japanese national treasure paint monk Sesshu Toyo painted Broken Ink Landscape in 1495. Chuang takes the painting as a reference for his creation, converting the three-division liubai (white space) composition and the artistic conception of broken ink in the original painting to a modern style. The artist used the rich texture of acrylic and oil paints and the abstract brushwork of ink-wash skills in calligraphy to refine and recreate it into a modern splendor of landscape variations. Inspired by the light and shadow changes of the liubai technique, Chuang masters the balance of color application in the background of Variation on Sesshu's Broken Ink Landscape 11 (Lot 132). He uses blueish green on the water ripples, and sips in a few strands of soft pink-purple, creating an ethereal and quiet aura. In the center, blue and purple are in harmony, forming the overlapping mountains. Besides these, bright yellow, dark green, vermilion, and other vibrant colors are spread on the canvas. Colors are scattered and dynamic. Light and shadow are interacting with each other. These create the infinite charm of the virtual-real balance of the ink-breaking technique.
In terms of the composition, the artist kept the form used by Sesshu in his Broken Ink Landscape. “Horizontal water-vertical mountains” is retained in the painting, yet integrated by the abstraction and expansion, presenting the pure beauty of tension through lines. On the whole, the work is like a calligraphy movement in one goes. Starting from a middle strength stroke, to the turning stroke-like lifting, pressing, pausing, and frustration, then to the bottom and straight ending, the artist creates a free and unobstructed charm. The work also fully integrates the technique of breaking ink, using the splashing, dripping, and other calligraphy skills originating from abstract expressionism to show the characteristics of breaking ink with Western-style oil paint. The superposition of the strokes blends different color systems on the canvas. In the purity of the overall composition, it returns to a sense of unity, leading the viewer into the distant world of Zen.

Price estimate:
HKD: 250,000 – 450,000
USD: 32,200 – 58,000

Auction Result:
HKD: 531,000