Mixed media on paper

147.5×117.5cm. 58 1/8 × 46 1/4 in.

PROVENANCE
Received as a gift directly by original French collector from the artist
Thence by descent to previous French collector
Private Collection, Asia

This work is authenticated by Kwai Fung Hin, Jia-Ling Zhao and Jean-Michel Burdeley, and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Hong Kong and signed by Jean-Michel Beurdeley

Reaching the Open Space, Dancing in the Delight of Life
The Poetry of Life by Lalan

Born in 1921 in an elite family in Guizhou, China, Lalan attended Hangzhou National College of Art and Shanghai college of Music to learn music and singing. In 1948, she with her husband Zao Wou-Ki moved to France and settled in Montparnasse. While they sank themselves in the artistic atmosphere in the afterwar Paris, they befriended Georges Mathieu and Sam Francis. Among all the second generation of Chinese-overseas artists, Lalan is the only one that masters both performing and visual arts, allowing her the prestige to respond to epoch-making art theories. For Lalan, the composition of a painting space shares the same foundations of music composition and choreography. She traces the art of dance back to the instinct of a body and extends it to the exploration of body language. This method corresponds to the creation of using body movement to lead the splash of painting colours that was applied in 1950s by Yves Klein and Kazuo Shiraga.

A Flow of Clouds, A Movement of Mind

The colour of Untitled (R21), the slim black lines on the paper are both light and powerful. The artist transmits body movement into performing strokes, dancing with the rhythms of music. In her art, the twists of the strokes resemble the curved performance of the dancer. Her brushes lead the path rising and falling, representing the traditional art of calligraphy in China. In the colour of Untitled (R21), layers of colours stack on top of each other, creating the atmosphere of ethereal clouds and mist.

A Focus on the Edge, a Space in Afar

Reminds the audience with a spacious view of mountains in afar that are covered with thick snow, or a misty drizzle that is depicted in the poetry, the composition combines both concrete and abstract symbols. It applies “the art of edges and corners” that the artist learns from Ma Yuan, the master of art in Southern Song Dynasty, and depicts the details of one edge of the scene, yet expands the space of imagination and empathy out of the painting towards somewhere far beyond. This work of art assimilates Chinese philosophy into the painting, and delicately merges its way into the world of Western abstract art, showing the enriched inclusiveness of both origins.

Price estimate:
HKD: 400,000 – 800,000
USD: 51,600 – 103,200

Auction Result:
HKD: 649,000