Oil on board

30.8×45.8 cm. 12 1/8×18 in.

Signed in English and dated on bottom left

LITERATURE
2003, Aesthetic Images of Ding Yanyong's Paintings, National Museum of History, Taipei, p.136
2020, Ting Yinyung Catalogue Raisonné: Oil Paintings, Rita Wong, The Li-Ching Cultural and Educational Foundation, Taipei, p. 383
EXHIBITED
5 Aug – 21 Sep 2003, Aesthetic Images of Ding Yanyong's Paintings, National Museum of History, Taipei

PROVENANCE
19 Apr 1998, Sotheby's Taipei Spring Auction, Lot 78
Collection of Yageo Foundation, Taipei
29 May 2005, Christie's Hong Kong Spring Auction, Lot 218
6 Oct 2009, Sotheby's Hong Kong Autumn Auction, Lot 558
22 May 2011, Beijing Cheng Xuan Spring Auction, Lot 845
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

Powerful Brush to Reveal Spirit, a Thousand Miles of Green
Ting Yinyung's Representational Landscape Oil Painting

"After a six-year hiatus from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, Ting returned to oil painting, not only engaging in archaic script-inspired subjects but also injecting poetic images borrowed from traditional Chinese landscape painting…soundly confirm Ting's ability to create a dynamic fusion of his dual-Eastern and Western-orientations. This fusion culminates in Boating in the Lake, dated 1971, in which Ting's visual vocabulary-ancient script, calligraphic line, strong colours, and compositional simplicity-though present, is subtly restrained. He thereby attains a highly developed and unique eclecticism."

—Rita Wong, the founder of The Li-Ching Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ting Yinyung, a renowned artist and educator, is undoubtedly a star in the long history of art. He is a 20th-century master of both ink and oil painting, calligraphy and seal carving. With a passion for saving the country through art, he went to the Tokyo Fine Arts School in 1921 and was inspired by new artistic trends such as Impressionism and Fauvism. At the age of twenty-two, his oil painting On the Dining Table was selected for the Fifth Central Art Exhibition of Japan, having stood out among the fierce competition of two thousand five hundred entries. He became the only Chinese artist to be selected.

After returning to China in 1925, Ting came across Chinese ink and wash in his study of lines, and realised that the core of "resemblance in spirit" in ancient Chinese art deserved to be taken more seriously. Henri Matisse, the founder of the Fauvist school, led the European art scene at the time, and Pablo Picasso were all influenced by primitive art or Eastern lines. He felt that he had found a cure for artistic innovation. He often used Chinese brushes to create oil paintings, and incorporated ink-painting lines into his works, creating a unique style.

There are only 350 oil paintings by Ting, of which only 23 are landscape-themed, making them parts of the rarest, and 13 of them have the theme of "tourists in boats", highlighting his preference for the subject. The painting Boating in the Lake is a representative example, which was completed in the 1970s when Ting was in his period of mastery, and which Rita Wong described as the "culmination" of his oil paintings of landscapes. It is also the third largest of this theme in terms of size. The work has been in the possession of an important private collector in Asia for over a decade and is now available at auction, where it will be treasured by those who know it!

Nature's Magic and Vitality

When Ting created his landscape oil paintings, grand architecture and historical monuments were not his main concern; he was more interested in "dialogue with nature and life". His landscape oil paintings inherit the ancient literati ideals of landscapes while incorporating the unrestrained and vivid colours of the Fauvists. The works are simple and childish in form but with broad and profound content.

In Boating in the Lake, Ting uses a strong brush stroke drenched in turquoise colour to create the shape of a full and overflowing lake. It is like a piece of crystalline emerald, reflecting the brilliant ochre tree waves in the setting sun. The mountains in the distance are painted with dynamic brush strokes. The bold and thick ink colour continues, drifting into the distance from heavy to light, like the change of ink density when painting mountains in a Chinese landscape, and like the calligraphy of wild cursive, leaving behind the unrestrained flying white. The golden light flickers in the sky, like a waterfall overflowing from the sky to the right, giving off a romantic vibrancy.

Ancient for Modern, New Creation of Using Shape to Represent Meaning

As the Director of the Art Department of the Guangzhou Municipal Museum (now the Guangzhou Museum) for nearly ten years from 1929, Ting was able to appreciate a rich collection of ancient Chinese artefacts. Among them, he was particularly interested in oracle bone inscriptions and Qin-Han seals, which he studied in depth and transformed into creative inspiration. Since the 1960s, Ting Yinyung has been using ancient and powerful oracle bone symbols in his paintings. The use of ancient Chinese symbols and freehand lines opened up an unprecedented path, which is still remarkable when viewed from today's perspective. In Boating in the Lake, Ting also skilfully incorporates an oracle bone inscription. He paints the boat in the centre with a single bold stroke of white oil. The shape of the boat is transformed from the oracle bone character for "boat 舟", bringing the essence of the Chinese character for "using shape to represent meaning" into full play, demonstrating Ting's years of searching for the origins of art, and adding a touch of innocent humour to the work, which is interesting to watch.

A Blend of Scenarios Generates Poetic Rhythms That Is Heart-Moving

In Ting's landscapes, figures are often used as embellishments to the scene, sketched with minimalist brushstrokes in an attempt to convey the sense of human presence. In Boating in the Lake, however, more details can be seen. In the centre of the foreground, an elegant woman with an orange parasol, dressed in blue and with her hair coiled up, sits alone in a boat. Her face is hidden by the parasol, just like the mysterious woman in Classic of Poetry-The Reed. Behind her, on the red boat, a man is seen paddling hard. One can't help but romanticise the identities of the two people. The two boats erect their masts without hoisting sails or pointing out the direction of the boat. Ting creates a life scene like a stage, leaving the plot open to the viewers' discretion, adding a touch of disorientation and metaphor. Looking back at the time when he created this work, Ting was already in his old age. He had spent half of his life wandering around the world and regretted not being able to reunite with his family in his later years, so this work may also carry a reminiscence of his deceased family members and his homeland, which adds to the deeper meaning of the work.

In Ting's vivid paintings, he uses unrestrained brushstrokes to depict spirit, breaking away from the boundaries of silhouette lines, paving the lake and mountains with the tension of colours, and displaying his boldness; he uses oracle bone characters and ink strokes in the Western painting medium, freely and effortlessly. He leaves behind a mysterious and fascinating scene, such as a piece of ancient jade quietly displayed in time, elegant and profound, waiting for the viewer to savour it carefully.

Price estimate:
HKD 1,200,000 – 1,800,000
USD 153,800 – 230,800

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,440,000