Oil on canvas

150 × 150 cm. 59 × 59 in.

Titled, and signed in Chinese, dated on the reverse
EXHIBITED
17 – 19 Jan 2020, Taipei Dangdai 2020, Soka Art, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Soka Art, Taipei
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

A Surreal Glass Phantasmagoria
Zhang Yingnan's Magic in the Window

Zhang Yingnan enjoys utmost popularity as one of the emerging contemporary artists. He is good at exploring physical and mental space with restrained, rational geometrical composition and delicate use of colour, meanwhile expressing the solitude and disquiet in life, the anticipation for the future, and the nostalgia for his hometown. He stands out with a personal style that is both realistic and surreal, communicating the emotional within the rational and touching people's hearts deeply. In recent years, the artist has gained recognition through frequent solo exhibitions that sold up at impressive rates. Zhang Yingnan's works are based mainly on architectural forms and human or animal figures rarely appear. Encounter is one of the only two by him that take up the subject of animals, more specifically, horses, highlighting the work's uniqueness.

A Poem that Interweaves Sense and Sensibility

Encounter showcases the artist's signature geometric, surrealist composition. Standing at the centre of the image is a brown wall that is inlaid with a glass window and its blue frame. Behind it, another wall reveals itself among bushes and trees. The window does not open to the indoor, but continues the green of the garden, blurring the boundary between the interior and exterior to create a sense of unreality. A visual sophistry is therefore set for the viewer, from whom the work arouses immeasurable fascination through calm, orderly geometric structures.

Since antiquity, the horse head has symbolized power and conquest. Yet, to go aginst such tradition, Zhang Yingnan deliberately conceals the head and depicts the animal's posterior, which introduces a layer of mystery to the work. In the painting a horse emerges from the garden on the right whilst another within the window frame comes from the left, the two appearing to be running up against each other via a dimensional crack. The artist's play of space coincides with the Surrealist master René Magritte's work, The Blank Signature. Zhang Yingnan was born in rural Shaanxi Province. After relocating to Beijing, although having experienced extended social relations due to the development of communicational technology, the artist felt his inner loneliness increase. With Encounter, he seems to express a metaphor for the intimate but simultaneously detached relationships that people establish with two-dimensional items such as photographs and electronic screens, strucking a chord among the dynamic yet lonely souls of contemporary society.

Price estimate:
HKD 400,000 – 600,000
USD 51,300 – 76,900

Auction Result:
HKD: 840,000