Ink and colour on paper

56 x 56 cm.22 x 22 in.

Signed and dated in Chinese；stamped with the artist’s seal on the lower right；titled in English and Chinese on the reverse
PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner.

Liu Kuo-Sung
(b.1932-)
Liu Kuo-Sung has always maintained a staunch stance on Chinese tradition, safeguarding what should be safeguarded and transforming what should be transformed. Without abandoning Chinese aesthetics, classical philosophical values, the cosmic ideal of heavens and man as one, and modelling after the heart, he introduced dramatic innovations to the language, tools and materials of traditional Chinese ink and opened up a new horizon for the modernization of the ancient art form. The impact was so great that he has been revered as the father of modern ink painting. For almost two decades, traditional Chinese painting has been swept by a whirlwind of change stirred up by the distinctive painting diction of this great master.

Liu is opposed to the notion that brush and ink form the basis of Chinese painting and clamoured for a revolution against established brush and ink applications and against the importance that has all along been attached to copying. To practise what he preaches, he challenges the supremacy of brush and ink by constantly devising new tools and new materials to produce new textures. For example, the semi-automatic techniques that he has developed from his familiarity with the permeant nature of ink are instrumental in projecting personality while embracing not only traditional values but also modern ones such as environmental-friendliness.

Liu Kuo-Sung’s Metamorphosis of the Moon: 76
In late 1968, Liu saw on television and in newspapers and magazines snapshots of the Earth taken by the American spacecraft Apollo 8 from behind the Moon and, with his extraordinary sensitivity, started the making “space painting” that is abstract in an oriental way. The first work from the period is Which Is Earth?, completed in early 1969, in which the square-plus-sphere composition inspired by the Chinese Lantern Festival is reconstructed into a sphere-plus-arc in response to the mass media images of the Earth appearing alongside the Moon. The work won first prize at the international “Mainstream International Exhibition” held in the USA that very year, earning him critical acclaim as the first and foremost painter of space.

Thus, the period between the late 1960s and the early 1970s has become a pivotal phase and an important watershed for the artist.

The Space series can be further divided into the sub-series of the Moon and the Sun. A classic piece from the Moon series is Metamorphosis of the Moon: 76 , dated 1971 and in ink and colour, featuring the Moon and the Earth confronting one another. On a special sheet of rice paper made with bagasse and against a ground broad-brushed in bright yellow, the Earth, delineated in swift ink strokes with a dry brush , is seen in the foreground to face the Moon, collaged and tinted, at the top. The momentum of the uninterrupted lines reflects the confidence of an artist in the prime of his career. Reinforced by broad strokes in wet ink, the texture of the mountains is represented in white, which results from fibres plucked from the paper wherever appropriate, evoking the expressive calligraphic beauty of Chinese art. Across the painting surface, the translucent yellow hues seem to be, like the Moon, glowing on their own. Simple and yet captivating, this early masterpiece demonstrates how oriental appeal can be achieved with innovative techniques and manipulation of the brush and ink to excite the viewer’s imagination of and identification with the infinite universe.

Price estimate:
HKD：300,000 - 500,000
USD：38,700 - 64,500

Auction Result:
HKD: 437,000