Oil on canvas

直徑 100 cm. 直徑 39 3/8 in.

Signed in Chinese, inscribed and dated with five artist's seals on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

Layers of Stones Reflecting the Human Heart
Chou Chu-Wang's Countless Images in a Microscopic Life Landscape

As a representative of eternal life, stones represent landscape beauty, absorb the essence of the sun, the moon and serve as a testament to billions of years of history and the expanse of the galaxy. Since the Wei (220-266) and Jin (266-420) dynasties, generations of talented literati have observed the messages of all things in “unspeaking stones,” which have been used to symbolize will and spirit. In this context, the contemporary artist Chou Chu-Wang, from Pingtung in Taiwan, collects rounded stones from beaches near his hometown and uses them to illuminate the boundlessness of nature. Chou has always used detailed surrealist brushwork to depict the warmth and lustre of stones and thereafter developed an art world in which he expresses big ideas through small representations, opening up a vast visual world. From 2016, Chou held three solo exhibitions: The Hours, Vicissitudes of Stony Seas and Geologic Fabric of the Mind, which moved countless viewers and saw his works collected by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Union Culture and Art Foundation and White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, Australia. It was also at this time that Chou produced the masterpiece Stone Heap, a distinctive work with a rare circular canvas and composition, showcasing the life patterns of a distant universe seen through binoculars.

Looking up at the Vast Universe, Collecting Moments of Light and Shade

In work Stone Heap, Chou Chu-Wang simulated the imposing sight of prehistoric Stonehenge. Through his highly detailed and realistic brushwork Chou recorded the shape, texture and light/shade of each individual stone, single-mindedly showcasing the essence of living things in the form of an eternal scene. The round painting creates a scenario akin to looking through a lens at a brilliant star in the distance or at part of the world through a microscope. The stones are arranged in layers and a circle from the outside in, with two stone gates in the upper part serving as a focus that consolidates and magnifies a ritual grounded in nature. Moreover the angle of sunlight from above is seen as undulating shade against the nature-absorbing pore-like texture and surface of the stones, reflecting changes in the blue sky and white clouds against their minimal grey-white hue. “The origins of memory contained in the painting are every moment I have collected.” Chou took the round stones and transformed them into stardust, thereby accessing the macroscopic universe, leaving a footnote to life and exclaiming over the perseverance of the human heart.

Price estimate:
HKD: 100,000 - 150,000
USD: 12,700 - 19,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 168,000