Oil and tin tube on paper and document

82 x 102 cm. 32 1/4 x 40 1/8 in.

PROVENANCE
Mind Set Arts Center, Taipei
Private Collection, Asia

This work is accompanied by an explanation document and a certificate of authenticity issued by Taipei Mind Set Arts Center and signed by the artist

I, A Pen Walker And My Portrait of Life
Shi Jin-Hua's oil Pen Walking

Shi Jin-Hua's behavior art honestly reflects his thoughts and experience about life. He leverages his own body as the instrument to express and reflect the subtle connection between subjects and objects. As his most iconic series with over 150 pieces, Pen Walking has witnessed his exploration from new rendition formats to alternative media. In Shi's artistic language, pen signifies the duration of a lifetime. He doodles until the paint wears out as his way of feeling the circle of life. The Pen Walking series helped him bring back the first prizes of Taipei Arts Award and Kaohsiung Award. His lauded position and remarkable achievements in the artist community are demonstrated by his recent exhibitions at multiple establishments, including Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Shanghai Mingyuan Art Museum and Yokohama Civic Art Gallery.

Non-Subject Portrait, A Connotation of Life

The auction proudly presents Pen Walking #92 whose texture stands different from his pencil works. By using up a tube of black paint, the artist highlighted the unique texture of oil paint and the stroke progresses with alternating speed and rhythm that allow for infinite imagination, maximizing the visual appeal. The artist spiced up the composition by placing the paint tube inside out at the center as the subject.

The painting is a prototype of an individual's life journey. Shi used the tail end of the brush to scoop the paint out of the tube before applying it onto the canvas in horizontal lines. The wavy strokes qualify as a simulation of the pace of life. The artist started with loose spacing, then tightened up and concluded with moderate spacing. The yellowing paint interwoven with the simple patterns implicitly shows the marks that time could leave. The painting makes a pseudo self-portrait with the tube as the subject to capture the passing of time. It reminds the viewer of Van Gogh, whose inner feelings burst into the churning turbulence of the background and the swirling strokes that connoted the exhaustion of paint cans.

As a “Pen Walker”, Shi went all out to project his underlying thoughts onto a creative miniature in a time-lapse fashion, and thus made the artwork more of a vivid portrait of the artist.

Price estimate:
HKD: 75,000 – 95,000
USD: 9,700 – 12,300

Auction Result:
HKD: 100,300