Oil on canvas

72×91.5 cm. 28 3/8×36 in

Signed in Chinese and English on bottom left

LITERATURE
Nov 2014, Sanyu Catalogue Raisonné Drawings and Watercolors, Rita Wong, The Li Ching Cultural and Educational Foundation, Taipei, Plate D311
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia
This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity issued by the artist.

Plum Blossom and Riverside Landscape
The Art
of Pang Jiun
Pang Jiun was born in a family with artistic background. His father Pang Xunqin played a significant role in developing Chinese modern art as an artist and art educator, while his mother Qiu Di was a talented and active painter at the time. Being imperceptibly influenced by his parents, Pang’s artistry was evident at an early age. He was hailed as a painting progidy and accepted into the Hangzhou Academy of Fine Art when he was 13. He later transferred to the Central Academy of Fine Arts and studied under the greatest Chinese modern painters Xu Beihong and Li Keran. After graduating from college with distinction at the age of 18, he devotes himself to the pursuit of art with every effort till today, with abundant energy of creation.
In praise of clearness and simpleness with tranquility in the heart
Pang Jiun captures the beauty of nature through his still life paintings and projects with personal feelings, conveying the ’commune with the nature then transform it’ philosophy from Chinese literati thinking. Though presented in the form of Western oil painting, Pang’s works exquisitely show the refined and harmonious artistic conception, putting the viewer personally into the scene. It is in this way that the Oriental aesthetic concept of ’enjoying the landscape through paintings’ was profoundly revealed.
In Riverside Landscape, Pang Jiun depicts the secluded, wild and boundless landscape with his recognizable grey hue. In the image, strung out along the riverside are distant mountains stretching and undulating, gauzy mist and cloud curling up on the hillside, and soaring peaks in midground which seemingly rise from the river with reflections left on the water. Differently shaped fishing and sailing boats are placed in a stagger near and far, showing the vitality through the transit from stillness to motion. In the foreground, two trees with tender shoots sprouting along the branches stretch out from the bottom of the image, forming a pleasing contrast with dark green bushes on both sides. Out from the cold and quiet grey hue, such an eye-catching greenness brings refreshment and delight to the viewer. Judging from the title Riverside Landscape （which originally means that rivers and mountains don’t compare to the painting）, this painting is one of Pang Jiun’s most satisfactory works. Although there exists substantial scenery which the artist took for reference, after his projection of personal feelings and imaginative recreation, the dimensions of the picture turn into a piece of music rich in melody and rhythm. Thus the painting can be appreciated not only by viewing but also by listening.
Ornament with fallen blossom and lingering charm
In another work, Plum Blossom, strong contrast of color depicts the springtime when all the flowers bloom. Through swift and small touches, Pang Jiun gave life to fully blooming flowers along branches of varied width, seemingly a flower rain falling from the upsides of the image and drifting in the wind towards distant fishing boats. Such a scenery reminds the viewer of the line from Fan Zhongyan’s renowned poem Memorial to Yueyang Tower—’As for the days when spring weather is mild and sunny, nature is lit with a bright smile, and the waves being halcyon, the sky and the lake are tinged with the same hue, making up an infinitely huge canvas of light blue’. It is the way in which Pang Jiun deals with the integrated color of the sky and the sea that distinguishes this work. Deliberately, he applied high-luminance white color in the areas which could have been left blank—a frequent method in Chinese traditional paintings, creating similar visual impact while in a unique style. In this way, the work is beautiful in colors yet not garish, most incisively depicting the poetic moment of a man fishing in the river, alone in the spring breeze. Pang Jiun, in his venerable age, is exceedingly dexterous in handling complexity by simplicity and returning to the nature of painting, with poetic landscapes at his fingertips, affectionate yet tranquil.

Price estimate:
HKD: 260, 000 - 360, 000
USD: 33, 300 - 46, 200

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,003,000