Oil on canvas

53 × 41 cm. 20 7/8 × 16 1/8 in.

Signed in Chinese and dated on bottom right

LITERATURE
2010, Zhou Chunya, Timezone8, Beijing, p. 116-117
PROVENANCE
Important Private Collection, Asia

Projection of Self, Question of the Meaning of Existence
Zhou Chunya's Intense Emotional Rare Portraits of Life

“Recently, I like to let my anxious emotions dominate my paintings, and I am even more enthusiastic about piercing the smoggy sky of Chengdu with the strong light of the sun. Since I left the pasture, many scenes have become blurred. However, the vivid colours of the grassland, the relaxed and simple images of the Tibetan people have remained in my heart forever.”

――Zhou Chunya, 1983

As a leading figure of contemporary Chinese modernism, Zhou Chunya, in contrast to other artists of his time, does not reflect on the violent fluctuations of history through his works, nor does he emphasize the grand narratives of his time. In his more than 40 years of a creative career, his iconic series of works such as Stones, Flowers, Peach Blossoms and Green Dog, reveal his full and consistent personal emotion and spiritual pursuit. Zhou Chunya's works are highly sought after in the market and academia.

In 1982, after graduating from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Art with a degree in printmaking, he visited the Tibetan region again and was deeply moved by the vastness of nature, as well as the simplicity and joyfulness of the Tibetan people despite their difficult material conditions. He was moved to create his famous Tibetan series. For Zhou Chunya, art is always rooted in real life; Male Portrait (Lot 124) and A Turbaned Woman (Lot 123) were completed in 1990 and 1991 respectively, after he returned to China with a degree in Bildende Kunst from the University of Kassel in Germany. The works were created around the same time, and have a mirroring effect with the aesthetic perspective of his Stones series.

The Real Meaning of Life

If Zhou Chunya's Taihu Lake rocks are often strangely shaped and twisted in a way similar to the human body, then these two portraits, while capturing the character's aura and personality through Zhou's fierce and rough brushwork, also reveal some of the visual sensations of stone carving, profoundly depicting one's baptism and the exploration of the meaning of life. For example, in Male Portrait, he used dark ochre to depict a middle-aged man with a round head and large ears, whose wrinkles are outlined by the seemingly random lines on his forehead; his sun-bleached cheeks, straight nose, gleaming eyes, and his tightly closed lips are like a statue carved by time. It conveys the unyielding character and the emotions of sentient beings.

In A Turbaned Woman, the protagonist's black hair and facial contours are clearly defined under the high-coloured turban, revealing the full appearance of a Tibetan woman. Her eyes look softly into the distance as if she is looking forward to someone or something; the woman's mouth and chest are deliberately decorated with a grey-green colour, which emphasizes the texture. At this point, they are no longer traditional portraits, but also confirm Zhou's further symbolic exploration of colour, texture, form, and quality in his future works. As he said, his paintings are not empirical evidence of reality, nor does he like euphemistic metaphors and profound symbols. He intends to bring out from his paintings those things hidden at the bottom of our hearts but are the most essential. The works are undoubtedly a clear projection of the artist's mind and a serious question on the meaning of life.

Price estimate:
HKD: 380,000 - 480,000
USD: 48,400 - 61,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 456,000