Mixed media on glass

Dia 102 cm. × 2. Dia 40 1/8 in. × 2

Signed in pinyin and dated on the reverse
EXHIBITED
12 Jul – 16 Aug 2008, Huang Yuxing solo exhibition Life History in Changing, Red Bridge Gallery, Shanghai

PROVENANCE
Red Bridge Gallery, Shanghai
Acquired directly by present private Asian collector from the above

Confronting the Complexity of Human Nature
Huang Yuxing's Rare Large-Scale Tondo Paintings

“As individuals who are living beings and human beings, we are constantly subject to the ceaseless forces of aging, disease, desire, social change, and nature from the moment of birth, and yet we always embody physiological resilience.”
——Huang Yuxing

In his youth, Huang Yuxing's painting style was vastly different from the dazzling impression in people's mind today. At the age of 30, he confronted the various facets of human nature in his artworks: desire, love, hate, anger, obsession, loneliness, life and death, religion, divinity, and deeply explored core issues such as “human body”, “life science”, and “media experiments”. He also attempted to move painting from the canvas to industrial ready-mades, boldly using ink, spray paint, glass, and breaking through the boundaries and conventions of traditional art making, displaying greater freedom of expression. Through intense narratives, he tried to seek a utopian sense of social identity from the meaning of life itself.

“Of all the painter's arts, stained glass is probably the most intractable......And yet no other art seems so little earthbound, so alive, so intrinsically beguiling in its effect.”
——Encyclopedia Britannica

Since 2007, Huang Yuxing began to challenge himself by painting on the reverse side of the glass of a 25 cm diameter IKEA quartz clock. The cold glass and gloomy ink, accompanied by the ticking of the clock hands behind the artwork, gave rise to When I'm in Need of Love Series. He later expanded his medium to larger glass panels, and the set paintings Untitled with a diameter of over one hundred centimetres presented at the autumn action are masterpieces of his works. This unique form of creation was only used from 2007 to 2008, and the number of such works is limited, highlighting the rarity of this lot.

Contemplating Time and Life: The Circle Spinning Across the Ages

Starting from the medieval exploration of the human body, Huang Yuxing depicts figures with limited colours that showcase the characteristics of Chinese ink painting. Through high-contrast colours, viewers are prompted to engage in a “cross-time” dialogue with the characters in the artwork, subtly alluding to the hidden cold violence and oppression in contemporary society as they are the counterpart of the Middle Ages. This set of circular paintings not only liberates the “humanism” of the Renaissance, but also embodies the Chinese ink technique of “following the natural way”, fully reflecting his contemplation on time and life, and death.

Originating from the Renaissance period, the “Tondo” painting highlights the centre of the composition, emphasizing the expression and the chiaroscuro on the character's face and magnifying the spatial perspective. Advocating to retain the process of painting, Huang Yuxing adopts a method like draw-on-film animation, using thin black ink to outline the figure and repeatedly shading with “gongbi” meticulous brushwork. The glass's unique “industrial coldness” and agility allows the ink colours to flow freely, shaping mysterious characters.

Under the Fleeting Shadows, Life Seems Like a Dream

In the side profile portrait, a woman sits upright with a determined gazed. Her slender face, curled hair and velvety attire echo with the ink splatter background. The work pays homage to Sandro Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Woman from the Renaissance period, exploring the ultimate question of “beauty”. Huang Yuxing's treatment of the background is even more delicate, with clear ink textures visible through the spray, smudging, and ink breaks, while the woman's hair shimmers like flowing gold against her pale skin in the darkness. The fluorescent red colour that adorns the woman's head like a headdress, floating dust, or bite marks, adds a touch of spirit and vitality to the otherwise dark painting and becomes a key feature in his future creations.

The True Colour of Life

In the other work, the overall tone is even purer, with the woman's face in the centre, resting her chin on her hand, tilting her head back with closed eyes, her hair spread out like Medusa, surrounding her face. Compared to Caravaggio's fearsome Medusa, the protagonist in Huang's painting lacks the terrifying gaze, the clear ink permeates a silky skin tone. The just-right blank spaces blend with the ink, making the features vague and sparse fluorescent red colours, making her more beautiful and innocent. Upon closer inspection, the overlapping and rendering of multiple ink colours create a harmonious visual landscape, embodying the Chinese painting's concept of “form and spirit in one”.

“I am a miserable materialist. I hate this fact and have to admit it.”
—— Huang Yuxing

Through his haunting paintings, Huang Yuxing reveals his highly sensitive inner self to the world. By giving new definitions to legendary figures, he reshapes historical works, inviting viewers to contemplate the eternal cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death amidst heavy and sorrowful life issues. It is precisely this deep understanding of darkness during this period that laid the foundation for Huang Yuxing's future colourful creations.

Price estimate:
HKD 150,000 – 180,000
USD 19,200 – 23,100