Acrylic on paper

54.4 × 74 cm. 21 3/8 × 29 1/8 in.

Signed in English and dated on bottom right
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly by present Asian collector from the artist

Flowing Imagery, Unruly Soul
Hsia Yan's Painting Soul

“Hsia Yan is an oriental painter who uses special brushes and fine lines to penetrate the oil paintings to convey the freehand and lyrical style of the Chinese, to stir the heartstrings of the Westerners... these seemingly non-real, imaginary and non-imaginary scenes, is a portrayal of our spiritual life.”
—— Shiy De-Jinn

In 1963, Hsia Yan, an artist from Hunan, was the apprentice of Li Chun-Shan. Together with his classmates Hsiao Chin, Li Yuan-chia, Wu Hao and others, he established the “Oriental Painting Club”. In the following year, he came to Europe and entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He strived to absorb the diverse expressions of Western modern painting, and discussed with his close friend Shiy De-Jinn on how the excellent Chinese art can be reborn in a foreign land. In Paris, he created the “fuzzy people”. The idea borrowed from cursive script turned out to be his most praised metaphorical expression. Hsia moved to New York in 1968, and he made further breakthrough with his style of photographic realism. Back to the “fuzzy people” in the 1990s, Hsia incorporated elements of myths, legends, and folk art into his creations, opening up a new artistic style. Hsia has been active in the international art scene for a long time. In recent years, as a representative of Chinese artists in the middle and late twentieth century, he has been holding solo exhibitions in Taipei Art Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, and other places, whose works have been collected by many art museums.

The Special Image of the Group: Summon the Freedom of the Soul

British artist Francis Bacon once said, “The most difficult and exciting thing is to touch the core of reality.” After World War II, European artists and philosophers discussed the meaning and nature of human existence. Hsia was influenced by this trend of thought. However, his creation is different from Bacon's anxiety that originated from the soul. The rich cross-cultural experience enables Hsia to possess both Eastern freehand style and Western expressive power.

In the Man and Woman (Lot 69) group paintings completed in 1990, the artist humorously restored the fundamental differences between men and women through geometrically abstract configurations. Meanwhile through the brushwork of fuzzy people, he expressed the commonality of people. The portrait of man has the dramatic tension of Bacon's Self-Portrait. The flesh texture of the face, the block-like surface, and the flying hair have been transform into lines and planes with his classic hairy style. The flowing spatial connection shifts Western perspective's emphasis on the physical essence into the strength of his cursive script style brushwork. It seems that he wants to tear the appearance and show “through the body, you can see the essentialization process.” In the portrait of woman, the artist embodied an embossed feeling onto the character with the long scroll to show the characteristic of floating. Her face is more vivid, with the geometric dotted brushstrokes imitating pearl jewelry. The wavy curls echo to the folds of the clothes, and the earrings and buttons interact with each other, presenting a more real spiritual “face”. By abstracting the characters, Hsia presents a more three-dimensional spiritual portrait. The with blurred facial features and expressions fully reveals a kind of uneasy and naked emotion in his strong dynamic lines, shaping a vivid life state.

Surreal Vision: the Poetic Imagery of “Blowing Down Stars Like Rain”

Wild Dog (Lot 68) that is completed in the same year, depicts a wild dog running in the woods. The flowing lines outline the shape of the body, which are in harmony with the form of the tree trunks, showing the fun of returning to the basics. Between the complex and overlapping brushstrokes, the artist makes the colors of the same system, such as lake blue, royal blue, indigo, and violet, a dreamlike feeling of illusion by using the light and thin texture of acrylic color and multi-dimensional romantic colors, painting a picture where yellow flowers on the canopy of the forest are like stars scattering in the sky. “Migration is not only his desire for artistic pursuit, but also the process of his spirit and emotion return home.” As art critic Shang Hui said, Hsia is like a unstoppable wild dog in constant migration, marching bravely on his own artistic path. No matter where he is, he calmly and emotionally examines the spiritual universals of the times, and turns his observations into powerful artistic vocabulary. In his writing of free life, he expounds the unruly and eternal thinking of art.

Price estimate:
HKD: 80,000 – 120,000
USD: 10,300 – 15,500

Auction Result:
HKD: 94,400