Oil on canvas

200 × 120 cm. × 2 78 3/4 × 47 1/4 in. × 2

Signed in Chinese on upper right of the right piece

LITERATURE
2010, Wang Huaiqing――A Painter's Painting in Contemporary China, Ediciones Polígrafa, Barcelona, p. 244-245
2012, One to All, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, p. 108-109
2015, Out of the Mountains: Wang Huaiqing Solo Exhibition, TKG Foundation for Arts & Culture, Taipei, p. 58-59
EXHIBITED
18 Nov 2010-10 Apr 2011, Wang Huaiqing-A Painter's Painting in Contemporary China, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
16 Jun- 5 Aug 2012, One to All: the Art of Wang Huaiqing, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei
4 Dec 2015-11 Jan 2016, Out of the Mountains: Wang Huaiqing Solo Exhibition, Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyōgo Prefecture

PROVENANCE
Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist and issued by Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei

The Resonance of Great Ming Style and Modern Western Aesthetics - A Surprising Symphony
A Masterpiece by Wang Huaiqing-Red Thread

“As a Chinese oil painter, Wang Huaiqing not only faced a huge and imposing ‘West' but also the enormity of ‘tradition.' In the face of these two ‘invisible' elephants in the room Wang found his own point of entry and that was ‘structure.' Traditional wooden buildings and furniture gave him boundless enlightenment and inspiration, and through them he felt the existence of the ancient cultural spirit sustaining a nation and transformed this into ‘visual strength' constructing an ideal expressive subject.”

――Art critic Jia Fangzhou

In terms of the development of modern Chinese art, Wang Huaiqing is a unique individual in a class of his own who cannot be ignored. In 1980, he painted The Picture of Bole a work imbued with a strong sense of formalism and humanism, followed after 1986 by the Jiangnan Residents series and Ming Furniture series, up until 2000 when he produced a large scale installation. Throughout this time, Wang consciously sought to be a “Chinese artist” and faced with five millennia of Chinese cultural tradition extracted and remade that heritage, combining it with Western modernism to establish his own distinctive “global art language” that broke down the barriers between East and West. After many years of research, from the 1990s to 2000, Wang's works began to achieve greater success. In 1991, he won a “Chinese Oil Painting Annual Exhibition Gold Medal” with the work Aura of the Great Ming, the following year he received the Ueno Royal Museum Award and in 1998 was invited to participate in the China: 5000 Years: Innovation and Transformation in the Arts exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Indeed, his work was one of the only two representing Chinese art from the 1990s, highlighting the lofty position Wang had reached at that time. After 2007, he became even more well-known, and has since held major retrospective exhibitions at home and overseas, including at the Shanghai Art Museum, Suzhou Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Japan, further consolidating his achievements and position in the art world.

Seattle Art Museum Director Derrick Cartwright praised Wang Huaiqing as: “One of the most outstanding Chinese artists alive today,” believing him to have “an unassailable position in Chinese historical heritage, while accurately utilizing visual methods to express contemporary aesthetic consciousness.” The head of the museum's Chinese art department Yao Chin-chuang pointed out that when creating Wang strives to make personal breakthroughs and since 2000 has produced only 5-10 works per year, most of which have been large in size or diptychs with “his desire to take a common canvas and see it infused with as much immortal energy as possible reaching its peak.” On the occasion of the autumn auction we are honored to present one of Wang Huaiqing's most important works from this period, Red Thread, which was completed in 2008. The piece combines the aesthetic core of the artist's work throughout his life and is bold and breathtaking in form. It was also a highlight at the retrospectives held at Seattle Art Museum and Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. This first appearance of the work at auction is a rare opportunity art lovers will not want to miss.

Majestic Showcase of National Self-Confidence

In 1989, Wang created the Ming Dynasty Furniture series in which he viewed the style of traditional Chinese furniture as both an object of affection and a crystallization of ancient wisdom. For example, Ming furniture was constructed using tenon-and-mortise work, a globally unique handicraft technique at that time. Ming Dynasty writer Wu Rong discussed the production of furniture in that era in the book Mirror of Craftsmanship and Guidelines by Lu Ban while modern scholar and renowned collector Wang Shixiang in Ming Dynasty Furniture Research adopted a literati aesthetic to divide Ming furniture into 16 categories. This classification was based on such aspects as simplicity, imposing nature, grandiosity and refinement, which provide some idea as to the depths of history and aesthetics represented by Ming furniture. In terms of his art work, Wang Huaqing takes the structure of Ming furniture as his starting point using tables, chairs, side tables, beds etc. in a way that is almost anthropomorphic. From the early 1990s, a great many of his works discussed the transformation and grief related to history and culture. For example, The Banquet (1996) is made up of furniture deconstructed and randomly dispersed in the air, creating a profoundly sad feeling. In the quadriptych Homeless Furniture (2001), we see broken and decrepit chairs, discarded in a piece that is moving and tragic. Moreover, the artist's Ming Furniture series of paintings are minimalist in their use of colour, with most mainly using black, white and grey. However, the work being auctioned Red Thread showcases a completely different feel as it is infused with a powerful sense of national self-confidence, while alluding to the artist's desire to escape limitations and find a new genre.

Firstly, this work overturns the artist's earlier approach of depicting furniture in solemn black, by choosing bright red and white for the composition. If we review Wang Huaiqing's art career, then from the early Jiangnan to the Ming Furniture series a total of 11 paintings contain red and only two of those focused on “red chairs,” emphasizing the rarity of this work. In China, the vermillion used here is widely used to paint palace buildings and temples, and as such is a symbol of nobility, whereas in popular culture red is intimately connected to “wealth and auspiciousness,” which is why it is sometimes referred to as China red and imbued with a rich in Asian aesthetic. Red Thread is in diptych form and in the left work the artist deliberately painted from a “frontal perspective” that is the main focus and concerned with meaning, using refined lines and a block shape to depict a Ming armchair known as an “official's hat armchair.” The back of the chair is upright and in the middle, with a handsome style that is solid and dignified. Moreover, the chair is a substitute for the lack of people in the painting and can almost be viewed as upright and imposing like the head of a family or country, imbued with self-confidence, grand style and scared of nothing. Wang Huaiqing once said: “It is hardly unusual to depict the expressions of life through a human figure, but to do so through the depiction of a chair requires a long period refining cultural complexities and subtleties” , and therein lies the genius of the artist.

Wang Huaiqing used a painting knife and brush together, using different degrees of strength when scraping, rubbing, pressing and painting, to blend the colours and craft a vigorous sense of power and rich texture. The way in which he used the knife is reminiscent of the abstract language of renowned painter Gerhard Richter. Indeed, if we look more closely the main red colour contains rich approximate and even contrasting changes in colour. Between scraping and painting the artist's steadfastness and determination is naturally revealed, with clean and clear lines highlighting a firm and tenacious life force. In addition, the crack pattern on the back of the chair and the barely discernible collision of red and green seems to denote how the imperceptible passing of time imbues the main character with wisdom, showcasing the majesty of cultural depth and national aesthetics.

Successfully Connecting Past and Present through Poetic Order and Strength

“‘When Han Xin selects his troops, the more the better'.” For an artist a painting is akin to a battlefield and the key to victory is determined by battlefield deployments – composition. Pan Tianshou often used to compare painting composition to the arrangement of pieces in Go and attached particular importance to occupying space, less is more, strictly controlling the area and winning by innovation. Pan once said ‘where I place the ink is black, but I concentrate on the white space.' I learned from him for many years and this was the most important thing he imparted to his students.”

――Wu Guanzhong

As Wu Guanzhong noted, the most important lesson he learned from his Hangzhou National Art Academy teacher Pan Tianshou was “composition.” In fact, composition is as important to a painter as troop deployments to a military strategist, the key being the control and layout of real and virtual space. As a student at the Beijing College of Arts and Crafts in the 1970s Wang Huaiqing was inspired by Wu and in 1987 was a visiting scholar at the University of Oklahoma. During the two years he spent in the US the artist visited numerous major art museums at a time when abstract expressionism was at the peak of its popularity. As a result, he became familiar with the mystical colour paintings of Mark Rothko and the automatic technique of Jackson Pollock combining flow of consciousness, but only after years of transformation and exploring was he able to move between East and West more adeptly. In early 2000, British art historian Michael Sullivan pointed out: “Wang Huaiqing combines the pure Chinese art visual plane with abstract construct affection, which he then marries to Western vision making his works extraordinary.” This is particularly evident in Red Thread where Wang took the modern composition aesthetics he learned from Pan and Wu, using just the right proportion of black and white, while maintaining extreme control of negative space and adjusting strength, which he connected to Western structuralism and abstraction creating a powerful response.

The main body of the Ming chair Wang Huaiqing painted on the left side of the diptych expands outwards, while he boldly and brashly dyed the entire right side white and then painted a vertical line and coloured block in overly bright beige, the former long and narrow, the latter solid, establishing a natural rhythm between them. Moreover, in the upper area he boldly painted a horizontal arrow-straight red line from left to right across the space, which speaks to the “less is more, winning by innovation” strategy pursued by Pan Tianshou and Wu Guanzhong, and draws out the powerful dramatic tension of the piece. In addition, there is some special meaning to the “red line,” because other than being a bold structural element in an abstract work, it also represents an external extension from the body of the red Ming chair, that is five Millennia of Chinese cultural aesthetics on the left of the work reaching into “the future.” Both sides are powerfully symbolic, the left side representing the majesty and noble self-confidence of ancient China, the right a newborn China that has escaped traditional forms, and broken free from the contradictions of past and present. At the same time, the red line in the vast white space, encapsulates various possibilities and explains the artist's own position, while alluding to cultural heritage and embracing a future of boundless possibilities. On viewing this work, one cannot but marvel at the artist's inimical style, bold layout and well honed creative expression.

Moreover, the “red line” in the work also harks back to Wu Guanzhong's theory of the “unbroken kite string,” a connection to national sentiment as well as 5,000 years of Chinese aesthetic culture, tempered in the form of a world class artist, who embraces his Chinese blood and roots as he boldly strides along “a new path of true meaning and sublimation.”

Home for the Vision and the Soul
Wang Huaiqing on Red Thread

Narrator: Wang Huaiqing

Completed in 2008, Red Thread is distinguished from my previous Ming style furniture series. In the past, my works have featured furnitures as the focal point that dominates the entire canvas, attracting viewers with compelling visual tension. However, I have employed a different technique in Red Thread, bringing satisfaction that does not only stir the visual sensory, but also fulfills and explores the spirituality of the soul.

A Vibrant Symphony: Twofold Journey of the Vision and Soul

Red Thread is a diptych on pure white canvas. On the left panel, I illustrated a Ming style official's hat armchair to satisfy the pursuit of visual imagery in the aspects of armchair and viewer appreciation. In the vast space of the right panel, I drew a red thread. Through three horizontally-oriented, vertically-oriented, and square-shaped white blocks, the two panels are connected, creating a sense of serenity and peace. I hope that viewers would be able to focus and meditate while appreciating the white canvas of the right panel, freeing one's mind and soul, inciting a journey of wandering and drifting freely “in the blank space as one learns to appreciate vacancy, subsequently noticing the fullness within emptiness, experiencing vibrancy in a colourless space; hearing symphonies in a silent realm.” The right panel depicts only one red thread, maintaining the colour palette and form alignment of two panels. Not excessive or lacking - with just one thread - leading its viewer's soul and vision. If it is believed that the left panel satisfies visual aesthetics, then I hope that the right panel presents a “retreat” for the mind and soul, providing people with an opportunity to relax amid the commotion of modern life and to have an opportunity for internal dialogue, bringing freedom to the soul.

The Tolerant Demeanor of a Literati: Sublime Within Subtlety

In Red Thread, the chair in the left panel is one of the main focal points. To me, “chairs” are not simply an object, but a symbol prevalent in ancient times and modern times. For example, in my Aura of The Great Ming created in 1991, furniture represents a “demeanor of tolerance”, a kind of “magnanimity”. In Red Thread, the chair is slim, stiff, squared, and upright, representing my admiration of the ancient literati's comportment. I infuse such spirit into the characteristics of the object in my painting, creating a relationship with tradition while differing from real-life Ming style furniture. I like straight lines. Laozi once said, “curved becomes straight”, “great sounds are silent, great images are shapeless”. Laozi is conveying the idea that within straight lines, twists and turns would exist; moderate bends would still occur. The same spirit is depicted in the lines of Red Thread. While the lines may seem straight, they embody the pressure of the art knife, the speed of the brush, and a unique texture that is cracked and mottled. The subtle changes in the strokes and contrasting colours constitute an inorganic “straight line”, alluding to a certain philosophy and view on life.

Beginning from History in Hindsight, Gazing at Today and Tomorrow

During 2005 and 2010, I tried to abandon the strong lingering historic impressions in my multi-layered texture works and attempted to move toward graphic creation with the objective to weaken the vintage feeling. I shifted from portraying still life to producing non-objective art. Emphasizing imagery and the culture symbolized by the image, I tried to create a piece that pertains to the present rather than the past, prompting people to see “today” and “tomorrow”. Through a refined image, my piece highlights the psychological needs of modern people. Red Thread is an exemplar of my creations during this time of stylistic change, representing the poetic implications I intend to convey.

I adore Chinese poetry. To me, Chinese poetry is a concise passage of words that encourages people's emotions and souls to drift afar while interpreting the message in personal ways. Red Thread is a piece with the same effect. The piece includes passion and calmness, lyrical romance and poetic sentiments. All of those are entailed. To me, there is no standard interpretations of artistic connotations. Viewers are free to comprehend art according to one's desire. However, if the piece successfully inspires and evokes, then the ultimate goal of the artist would be achieved.

Note: China Guardian (HK) expresses deep gratitude for Mr. Huang Waiqing's time and elaboration on the work.

Price estimate:
HKD: 16,000,000 - 25,000,000
USD: 2,038,200 - 3,184,700

Auction Result:
HKD: 21,210,000