Ink on paper

126×164.5 cm. 49 5/8×64 3/4 in

Numbered, signed in Chinese and English and dated on bottom of the work

LITERATURE
1994, ZAO WOU-KI The Graphic Work A Catalogue Raisonné 1937-1995, Edition Heede & Moestrup Pulishing House, p.98, pl.163
EXHIBITED
1993, 1993 Exhibition of Yuichi Inoue Unpublished Artworks, Japan

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Japan

In the Tang Dynasty, Master Kukai, a renowned Japanese calligrapher and inventor of the kana, a key element in the Japanese writing system, visited China where he studied the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi and Yan Zhenqing. On returning to Japan he promoted “calligraphy art” and Japanese began to refer to calligraphy as “The Way.” It is in this context that Yuichi Inoue did perhaps more than any other individual to develop the study of calligraphy.
The Physicality of Writing
Yuichi Inoue was born into a poor family in 1916 and chose to become an art teacher at a young age as a way of asserting his independence. In 1941, he began to study calligraphy with Ueda Sōkyū, the same year the United States declared war on Japan and the country faced burgeoning internal and external difficulties. At the same time, although Inoue lived in poverty, the practice of calligraphy was not an extravagant past time, requiring only paper and a brush. His studies continued for a decade. During World War II, he almost died during the US bombing of Tokyo and after the trauma of that experience remained very much aware that the freedom he enjoyed was a product of his close call with death. From that moment, Inoue determined to use “Shodo” to explore the path to self realization.
When creating, Yuichi Inoue liked to put great physical effort into his work and paint naked, which had a powerful visual impact. Moreover, he continued to work that way right up to his death in 1985, pouring his feelings and ideas into the pieces he created. In 1957, at the opening of the San Paulo Art Biennial, Inoue’s work Gutesu caused a major stir and was featured in British art critic Herbert Reed’s “A Concise History of Modern Painting.” In 1958, at the commemorative exhibition “Fifty Years of Modern Art” held at the Brussels World’s Fair in Belgium, Inoue was again chosen to represent Japan. Westerners believed he had established an Eastern abstract framework. American abstract painting master Robert Motherwell said： “Yuichi Inoue is imbued with the ultimate essence pursued by modern painting since its move away from realism. He is one of the few great artists from the latter half of the 20th century.”
A Small Boat Passes on a Long Journey
After Inoue started studying calligraphy in the 1940’s he embarked on a journey of discovery, with the 1960s to the 1970s a particularly productive period, followed by work of greater maturity in the 1980s. The painting Fune（Boat）, finished in 1983, is an excellent example of the art Inoue produced at this time. Having already transcended the pursuit of technique in calligraphy, Inoue’s brushwork in painting the character “boat” shows no sign of hesitation. He first painted the falling left stroke of the character and then used more forceful strokes to depict the main body of the character. This was followed by the dot in the middle and with a final movement of the brush a central horizontal line to complete the character. In creating this work, the artist deliberately avoids the dot in the lower half of “boat, ” leaving only the upper dot, like someone sat all alone, imbuing the work with a sense of poetry.
For Yuichi Inoue, art not only transcended its metaphysical beauty, but was also after practice and refinement, evidence of something that once existed. As Li Xiaoshan, director of the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts has said： “Inoue dedicated his whole life to proving how calligraphy can coexist with the life of an individual, how life can provide nourishment that enables calligraphy to grow and flourish in infertile soil, producing flowers that bloom like a piece of brocade. As such, art is sign, a symbol, proving that although calligraphy has a long and illustrious history, its appeal remains eternal.”
A Refinement of Affection and Life
Boat - A 1980s Iconic work by Yuichi Inoue

Price estimate:
HKD: 280, 000 - 480, 000
USD: 35, 900 - 61, 500

Auction Result:
HKD: 354,000