Oil on canvas

65 x 90 cm. 25 5/8 x 35 3/8 in.

Signed in Chinese and dated on bottom right;
titled in Chinese on the reverse

LITERATURE
1993, Paintings by Tomos, People's Inner Mongolian Publishing House, Hohhot, Pl.95
1999, Techniques of Famous Artist Today - Tuo Musi, Tianjin People's Fine Arts Publishing House, Tianjin, p.43
2018, Tuo Musi Solo Exhibition, Shixiang Space, Beijing, p. 76-77
EXHIBITED
5 May – 5 Jun 2018, Tuo Musi Solo Exhibition, Shixiang Space, Beijing

PROVENANCE
Important Private Collection, Asia

The Epic Poetry of Vastness
Tuo Musi's Departure

Born in Inner Mongolia in 1932, Tuo Musi started to learn painting from a young age. Departing the prairie for Beijing, Tuo Musi graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1958. The distinctive motifs of Mongolian people, horses and prairie, strongly immersed with the poetic nostalgia of the Mongolian, have been his symbolic signature. Tuo Musi has been on the board of juries of the National Oil Painting Exhibition since 1984, his artworks are collected by famed institutions such as the National Art Museum of China, Central Academy of Fine Arts and so on. In the 1990s since the Chinese economic reform, there have been pursuits of wider ranges of art creation. It's also a prolific period for Tuo Musi in his 60s. “In the 1990s, my art has undergone great changes and become mature. During that period, I painted many Mongolian female and horses. The Mongolian women are respectable, as they are independent and confident, not reliant on men. The Mongolian horses are free and agile. The Mongolian women and horses, when presented in my canvases at the same time, shows their respective beauty even more.” Tuo Musi said. His Departure (1993) exactly presents such charm.

In Departure, Tuo Musi depicts a moment of daily life that captures the Mongolian woman's nimble, elegant figure. The sizable greyish-purple robe and headcloth, orange belt strike a strong contrast with the greyish-white background. Instead of being punctilious, Tuo Musi uses swift, dry and rough brushstrokes to sketch her. The woman's contour and the folds of her robe seem to have been rubbed, which imitates the texture of stone rubbings of Han Dynasty. Tuo Musi applies dense paints on the Mongolian horse's body and the folds of the woman's robe to create the piling-up effect. This effect mimics the reliefs carved in stone, meanwhile echoing with the magnificent spirits of the Mongolian people. Before painting the protagonists, Tuo Musi covers the canvas with a layer of comparatively dark paints. Inspired by the “dried painting” technique of traditional Chinese painting, which is to paint with a dry brush that dips dense paints, Tuo Musi sometimes paints with dense paints while sometimes leaves blankness among brushstrokes. This creative use of oil paints delivers a sense of translucency rather than pure lightness. In the center of the painting, the woman looks at the gentle horse that stays with her. In essence the painting focuses on the friendly, co-existing relationship between human and horses in the prairie. Moreover, it points to the transcendental belief of the Mongolian people, “every life is equal, every creature has a soul.”

Price estimate:
HKD: 300,000 – 400,000
USD: 38,800 – 51,600

Auction Result:
HKD: 354,000