Chinese ink and mineral colour on paper

64.5 x 85 cm.25 3/8 x 33 1/2 in.

Signed “lei” in Chinese on the lower left
LITERATURE Hebei Education Press, Hebei, China, the Collection of Renowned Chinese Artists:
Xu Lei, August 2003, p.43.
Culture Art Publishing House, Beijing, China, XU LEI, October 2013, p.123.

EXHIBITED Beijing, China, Taday Art Museum, Veneer of the word-Xu Lei, Oct 20-29, 2013.

It was Xu Lei who ushered Chinese painting onto the contemporary stage since his individualistic works landed exactly on the intersection between the historic and the modern. He was ground-breaking in that, instead of following the examples set by Xu Beihong and Jiang Zhaohe to reform Chinese painting with Western Realism, he chose an alternative path by introducing Modernism into the traditional fine-brush genre so that Western elements like forms, space and chiaroscuro can be blended with the elegance and delicacy of Chinese painting. Drawing his inspiration from the past, Xu has singularly established a new style of his own as he moves forward while constantly looking back. Unprecedented in conception, he has paved the way for Modernism with Chinese characteristics, inspiring and influencing later reformers of the traditional for contemporariness. For this, Xu has been held in high regard as the founder of new literati painting and a leading fine-brush painter of new Chinese ink.

“Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”

——Rene Magritte
In the 1990s, the series Ancient Palace astounded the world. From then on, Xu has been recognized as an artist primarily negotiating the past visually and the future conceptually. His style is noted for the delicate brushwork that defines the ancient fine-brush genre while his imagery is impregnated with Western Surrealist rhetoric. The Chinese poetic charms that pervade his works are informed by his fascination with Chinese literature and particularly poetry when he was young. Although he insists on painting on traditional rice paper or silk as past masters did, he prefers concentrating on the layout and composition to dwelling on brush and ink. As confessed by the artist himself, he is interested more in sorting out the ideological and rhetorical relationship of his motifs than in figuring out how to paint.

The painting Suspension represents Xu’s perfect union of sombre hues and absurd stage sets. The low vantage point intensifies visual perception of the confined space, which brings to mind the entrapment evoked by scenes of enclosed settings in the Ancient Palace series. Theatrical props recurrent in Xu’s semiotic vocabulary, such as Ming-style official hat’s chairs, western-style curtains printed with Chinese patterns and a top hat, are also prominent in the present lot, endowing it with the proportions of a classic.Rich in bizarre imageries, the work is evidently influenced by Freudianism and Surrealism, especially René Magritte’s symbolic use of objects and philosophical arguments. Despite the profound influence, Xu does not resort to illogical recreation of dreams but engages himself in rhetorical games laid out on the painting surface. Thus, illusions lead to beauty, reality is detached from itself, and the paintings sparkle with wit and intelligence. Neither is Xu ambiguous about the connection between his portrayals and literature or even language.

Price estimate:
HKD：1,200,000 - 1,800,000
USD：154,800 - 232,300

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,495,000