Ink and colour and oil with paper collage on canvas

75 x 112.5 cm. 29 1/2 x 44 1/4 in.

Signed in Chinese and dated on bottow Left

LITERATURE
1992, Chuang Che Solo Exhibition, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, p.39
EXHIBITED
2 May – 28 Jun 1992, Chuang Che Solo Exhibition, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly by original collector from the artist
Private Collection, Asia

Poetic Landscape: A Chant of Nature by Chuang Che

In the 1960s, as a representative member of the Fifth Moon Group, Chuang Che actively explored how to use Western media to express the spirit of the East. Using composition methods such as hand-tearing, pouring, and collage together with ink wash and calligraphy techniques, he created a number of outstanding abstract landscape works that embody the spirit of oriental poetry, which constituted a breakthrough in his personal painting language.

Expressing the Realm of Life
Recollections (Lot 99), created in 1965, is divided into three parts. The artist collaged a piece of canvas in the central position of the work and then used calligraphic techniques to paint large areas of color which depict a magnificent abstract landscape. In the blank areas on the left and right side, Chuang inscribed a verse of poetry, making the poetic spirit of the landscape extend beyond the picture itself. The original verse comes from a poem by a Southern Tang poet Li Yu and can be translated, “Why am I alone so overwhelmed? What end is there to my grief?” Originally an expression of sadness, Chuang changed it slightly so that it can now be understood as “One's own mind is limitless, as wide as the world itself.” The artist combined the artistic language of the East and the West to form his own unique style and created an innovative, abstract landscape painting that reflects the humanistic spirit of the East.

In the Clouds Rising from the Sea Appears a Leaping Dragon
After moving to the United States in the 1970s, Chuang Che started to construct his ethereal landscape image, by combining water-based acrylic and oil paint with ink lines and the technique of splash brush. In his painting, Reflection and Wake of the Wave (Lot 100), created in 2006, Chuang blended the fluidity and turbulence of water flow into the painting. He adopted western expression techniques of abstractionism and employed calligraphy as a painting method to allow the spontaneous formation of dripping paint, which leads to the subtle confrontation between the clouds and waves, creating a scenery of the clouds rising from the sea. Gorgeous rays of light in green, brown, red, and purple color shine through the cloud sea and intertwine with each other, constituting a world between reality and illusion.

In Water Album, the Southern Song Dynasty painter Ma Yuan depicted the variable properties of water in different seasons through meticulously arranged ink lines, reflecting the philosophy of nature. In Chuang's The Wave of Awakening, he inherits the rhythm of traditional calligraphy, while adopting the techniques of oil painting, presenting the infinite vitality of contemporary landscape which appears harmonious yet unreal. Each line transforms as it flows, as if a leaping dragon, fully revealing the visual impact of color and shape. Following the laws of nature, Chuang represents the landscape with classic central composition. Through abstract brushstrokes, he has captured the poetic sentiment of nature and developed the aesthetics of contemporary landscape painting.

Price estimate:
HKD: 80,000 – 150,000
USD: 10,200 – 19,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 141,600