Acrylic on canvas(A); polyurethanes paint sculpture (B) Edition: 4/20 (B)

A: 100 × 80 cm. 39 3/8 × 31 1/2 in. B: 30 × 21 × 13 cm. 11 3/4 × 8 1/4 × 5 1/8 in.

A: Signed in English and dated on bottom right
B: Numbered, signed in English and dated on the reverse of the base
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

The Fantastical Journey of “The Little Guy”
Lin Bao Ling's Adventure in the Mountains

Lin Bao Ling, born in 1981, is particularly fond of the theme of nightscapes. Using solid painting techniques, he reveals the dramatic light and shadow changes in the dark night, the sometimes focused and sometimes hazy visual sensations, and the quiet exploration of travel from his imagination that refreshingly unfolds onto the canvas. After graduating with honours from the LaSalle College of the Arts in Singapore in 2006, he enrolled in the Department of Fine Arts of the National Taiwan Normal University to study ink wash painting, moving freely between multiple media. In 2010, he was invited to the Vermont Art Village in the United States for a residency, and then held a solo exhibition at the First Bank of New York, where his works were included in the Bank's collection. Since 2006, he has been working on the The Nameless Little Guy series. The Little Guy has a small body but carries a large backpack, and is often portrayed in the paintings as embarking on a journey. First auctioned at China Guardian Hong Kong in 2021, both works sold for five times their estimate, and were highly sought after by collectors. This time, we present Desire IV, The Nameless Little Guy (Lot 5) and Night Out (Lot 6), works that incorporate his classic vocabulary.

The Healing Journey of a Life of Comfort

Desire IV, The Nameless Little Guy is a set of two pieces consisting of one sculpture and one painting. On the sculpture The Nameless Little Guy, the artist depicts a young little guy who is painting with traditional Chinese brushstroke, thus becoming a self-depiction of the artist himself. He is wearing a contemporary beanie hat to reveal his young age, which is a contrast to the brush pen he is holding, demonstrating to the dedication of the artist to combine contemporary and traditional style in his artwork. In painting Desire IV, the artist deviates from traditional Chinse landscape painting composition that focuses on “big landscapes and small figures”, and enlarges the visual centre to focus on the protagonist's facial expressions. In the painting, the Little Guy is sitting alone by the campfire in the darkness of the night; his woollen hat is placed warmly on his head to protect him from the cold, and white bandages are wrapped around his forehead and body to cover his heavily scarred body. He sits near the bonfire with a wooden stick in his hand, and barbecuing two mushrooms on the stick. The Little Guy's mouth is slightly open, drooling, as he stares at the food in front of him… The artist ingeniously uses the audiences' desire for warm food as the theme of “desire”, and uses food to soothe empty taste buds and souls, bringing a touch of warm comfort to people in the cold night, making this a journey of healing.

A Fantastical Journey Through the Past and the Present

Night Out uses Lin Bao Ling's iconic vertical composition; the bottom-up perspective accentuates the steepness of the scene, highlighting the towering cliff in the dark night. Under the vast sky, only the Little Guy is visible, alone on an adventure and walking on a long and thin rope to cross the valley. One end of the long rope is tied to a stake, while the other end extends beyond the painting, suggesting an unknown path ahead. The protagonist wears an illuminated night light on his head. He grabs the tree trunk beside him with one hand, hesitantly stretches out one foot, and moves forward with grit. His thin and small body is in stark contrast to the large valley, and the lights of thousands of homes in the distant city are isolated by the heavy mountains, only accompanied by the hanging bright moon. This scene shows the dangerous of the environment, but also convey the Little Guy's bravery when he is facing the darkness. The composition of mountains and moonlit night in the painting reveals the elegance and flexibility of traditional Chinese painting, while the Little Guy represents a very contemporary cartoon shape, demonstrating a marvellous interpretation of the interweaving of the past and the present.

Price estimate:
HKD: 48,000 - 68,000
USD: 6,100 - 8,700

Auction Result:
HKD: 192,000