Acrylic and clothes on wooden panel (left piece); acrylic on canvas (right piece)

150 × 190 cm. (左件) 45 × 61 cm. (右件)；59 × 74 3/4 in. (左件) 17 3/4 × 24 in. (右件)

Signed in pinyin and dated on lower center (left piece) & Signed in pinyin and dated on the bottom left (right piece)

LITERATURE
2014, Huang Yuxing, Antenna Space, Shanghai, p. 98-99
2015, Alluvial – Huang Yuxing 2005-2015, Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, p.140-141
EXHIBITED
28 Jun - 26 Aug 2014, Present-ing Recital Louder than Paint, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai
13 Sep - 20 Oct 2014, The River’s Gobbled Up Trees and He’ll Shallow You Next, Antenna Space, Shanghai
5 Sep - 4 Oct 2015, Alluvial - Huang Yuxing 2005-2015, Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai

PROVENANCE
19 Jun 2017, China Guardian Spring Auction, Lot 174
Important Private Collection, Asia

Brilliant Starlight, Inseparable Companionship
Huang Yuxing’s Spectrum of the World

Born in Beijing in 1975, Huang Yuxing is one of the most prominent Chinese artists from the post-70s generation. After graduating from the Mural Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2000, he developed an enduring connection with Tibet during his travels in 1996, delving into the Tibetan language and residing in Buddhist monasteries. In 2008, facing a downturn in his life and artistic career, a trip to the Himalayas the following year became a turning point, reigniting his creativity. Since then, he has returned to self-expression and free creativity, abandoning drafts and using visually impactful colour structures to document his understanding of life and time. In 2011, he began replacing representational scenes with geometric symbols such as ellipses and cones, reshaping abstract landscape paintings, and giving birth to series such as Light, Habitat, and River. Invited as the first guest artist at the Yuz Museum Project Room in 2015, he has held solo exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo, and London, and, in 2020, became represented by Almine Rech, consistently setting auction records in the past three years. Last year, the Long Museum in Shanghai organized a large retrospective exhibition, Under the Vault of Heaven, further highlighting his extraordinary talent.

Stars Drape the Open Plain,
Moon Surges in the River’s Rythm

"The light that we see from distant galaxies left them millions of years ago, and in the case of the most distant object that we have seen, the light left some eight thousand million years ago. Thus, when we look at the universe, we are seeing it as it was in the past."
——Stephen Hawking, British physicist, A Brief History of Time

In Huang Yuxing’s series of works, River in 2012 holds significant meaning. He mentioned that this series defined the shape of time in his mind, where details in the paintings resemble cells under a microscope, merging and reproducing like the flow of life. The important symbols in this series, such as "bubbles", symbolize the cosmic cycle of life; "vortices" express the minutiae of human interactions, and "treasures" represent human civilization. Each stroke seems to be a collision between the artist’s inner self and the passage of time, freezing the inexorable flow of time in each indestructible fluorescent bubble, just as the farthest celestial bodies we see emitted light 8 billion years ago. Time may be relentless, but light allows all living things to remain relatively still, transforming into the eternal. While humans quantify life with time, we exist in an infinite space-time illusion between the universe and dust. This is precisely the philosophical reflection deeply embedded in the artist’s work The Range of the Universe, presented in this Spring auction. The artwork has been previously exhibited in the artist’s solo exhibitions in 2014 and 2015 titled The River Gobbled up Trees and He’ll Swallow You Next and Alluvial. The work transcends traditional canvas media, as the artist employs intriguing a double bed board as the painting material. The bed board, with memories, as well as the traces of the passage of time, serves as a tangible representation of warmth and human emotions intentionally preserved by Huang Yuxing. According to available records, he has created only three pieces of flat paintings using this almost "installation" concept to date. These creations are concentrated in the period from 2013 to 2014, with the present work being one of them and notably the largest in size.

Life’s a Dream in Fleeting Seam

"Fluorescent colours are unique to our era. The leaping nature of its colours is something the previous colour systems couldn’t provide——a concentrated and stimulated vitality."
—— Huang Yuxing 

The Range of the Universe is composed of two paintings, one large and one small. The large painting uses an old double bed board and an old fabric collage as its medium. The artist first applies a fluorescent colour with high transparency and low saturation as the base, continuously layering relatively thick colours like a practice, restraining the jumping fluorescence with multiple layers. The gaps between the bed board joints are cleverly used as the "horizon" where the sea and sky meet, dividing the image into two. In the azure sky, an uncommon English narration of the distances in the world unfolds. The artist expresses his contemplation on the relationship between humans and the universe, between objects and us. Under the expanse of the sky, elliptical shapes of various sizes repeatedly appear, shimmering with dreamy fluorescence, forming the flowing movement of the river. The artist references the concept of "membranes" in theoretical physics, using circles to express the rising of bubbles, symbolizing the living space of humanity. The overall image resembles the starlight in the vast galaxy, and deliberately in the centre, Huang Yuxing uses seven nails to pull a corner of old cloth, reminiscent of the constellation formed by the Big Dipper. Under the mottled background of blue and green, white droplets gather and dance. A square canvas filled with colourful bubbles stands out, exuding strong vitality and forming a vivid contrast with the old clothes and bed board, making viewers think of the life stories carried by the old bed board.

The fluorescent colours in this work are tender and solid, combined with the delicate and meticulous technique of fine brushwork. All the elements are clearly visible, with each bubble laid out in fluorescent five colours: pink, green, yellow, blue, and purple. On the river surface, seven water columns rise from the bubbles, gradually changing in transparency, resembling the ascent of water vapour and the passage of life. Rising upwards, the two "gems" hidden in the air, one on the left and one on the right, correspond to the gems in the water, varying in depth.

Glistening with Golden Light, Insight into the Origin of Life

Adjacent to the main painting is a small, glossy gem painting with a concise and clear composition. The dynamic colours flowing in the large painting are locked within a glass world here, resembling a small planet under the dome, where the geometric structure in the upper half seems like a miniature of human architecture, contrasting with the bubbles and vortices in the crystal lower half. The two works seem to be placed in different time and spaces, closely connected yet relatively independent, sparking infinite imagination. As the artist puts it, "For me, when the shapes connected to colours and emotions in the artwork are profoundly presented, it has the power to touch one’s heart." Through microscopic geometric elements, the work elaborates on grand life issues, depicting the distances between all things while guiding viewers to contemplate. Although humans may seem ephemeral in the vastness of the universe, as American physicist Lawrence M. Krauss said, "You are all Stardust."

Price estimate:
HKD: 1,200,000 - 1,800,000
USD: 153,300 - 229,900

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,440,000