Bronze sculpture Edition: 2/8

35×67×26 cm. 13 3/4×26 3/8×10 1/4 in.

Incised with artist's signature in English, numbered, credited and dated on the underside

LITERATURE (different dimensions, editions)
1994, Hsiung Ping-Ming, L'Atelier Production Pte Ltd., Singapore, cover page
1995, Hsiung Ping Ming 1995, Fairmate Art Gallery, Taipei
1999, Hsiung Ping-Ming, Mountain Art Museum, Kaohsiung, p. 38 - 39
1999, An Odyssey Abroad and Back – Hsiung Ping-Ming's Art, The National Museum of History, Taipei, cover page, p. 30 - 31
1999, Contemporary Chinese Art Collection 6: Hsiung Ping-Ming, Mountain Art Museum, Kaohsiung, p. 39
2011, Sculpture Art of Hsiung Ping-Ming, People's Art Press, Beijing, p. 234-235
2014, Breeze from Paris, Eslite Gallery, Taipei, p.94 and 160
2019, The Joy of Collecting Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House, Chengdu, p. 403
2019, The Journey of Defining Yourself – Art Exhibition of Hsiung Ping-Ming, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, cover page and p. 17
2021, 20th Century Chinese Art Master Hsiung Ping-Ming, Culture and Art Publishing House, Beijing, cover page and p. 20-21, p.240
2023, National Art Museum of China's Collection, Culture and Art Publishing House, Beijing, p. 331
EXHIBITED (different dimensions, editions)
7 – 27 May 1999, An Odyssey Abroad and Back – Hsiung Ping-Ming's Art, The National Art Museum of China, Beijing
10 – 20 Jun 1999, An Odyssey Abroad and Back – Hsiung Ping-Ming's Art, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
24 Jul – 8 Aug 1999, An Odyssey Abroad and Back – Hsiung Ping-Ming's Art, Kunming City Museum, Kunming
15 Oct – 7 Nov 1999, An Odyssey Abroad and Back – Hsiung Ping-Ming's Art, National Museum of History, Taipei
8 Jan – 12 Mar 2000, An Odyssey Abroad and Back – Hsiung Ping-Ming's Art, Mountain Art Museum, Kaohsiung
19 May 2003 - present, permanent display at Nanjing University, Nanjing
1 – 30 May 2010, Perfection・Serenity・Substance・Unrestraint・Chen Hsia-Yu, Hsiung Ping-Ming, Hsia Yan Sculpture Exhibition, Eslite Gallery, Taipei
23 Nov – 15 Dec 2019, The Journey of Defining Yourself – Art Exhibition of Hsiung Ping-Ming, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
15 Apr – 11 May 2022, The Returning Sculpture – Retrospective Exhibition of Hsiung Ping-Ming, The National Art Museum of China, Beijing

PROVENANCE
Important Private Collection, Asia

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by High Union Art Co.,Ltd., Kaohsiung

Note: This work is executed in 1969 and cast in bronze in 1998

Defying a Thousand Pointing Fingers, Bowing like a Willing Ox to Serve the Youth
Hsiung Ping-Ming's Important Masterpiece Kneeling Cow Is Released

A celebrated sculptor of the 20th century, Hsiung Ping-Ming graduated from the Philosophy Department of the National Southwestern Associated University in 1944. Three years later, with excellent grades, he was admitted to a state-funded program and travelled to Paris to pursue a doctorate at the Philosophy Department of the University of Paris. During his time in Paris, he was determined to study the art of sculpture, which he had long admired. He trained with Gimond, Jeanniot and other sculpture masters and studied the masterpieces by Rodin and Giacometti, actively learning from the best of the world and integrating his philosophical erudition into his art, making his works compatible with Eastern and Western aesthetics.

In this autumn auction, we are honoured to present Hsiung Ping-Ming's most representative masterpiece of the Buffalo series, Kneeling Cow. This work occupies a central position in many of the artist's publications and exhibitions, and another edition of it is in the collection of the National Art Museum of China. Moreover, it is of great significance in the artist's career: in the 1960s, when the famous physicist Yang Chen-Ning visited his close friend Hsiung Ping-Ming in France, he was fascinated by the Kneeling Cow. Both of them were faithful readers of Lu Xun. Yang Chen-Ning blurted, "this shall be the 'A Willing Ox' (ruziniu)". From 2000 to 2002, Nanjing University invited Hsiung Ping-Ming to make a large-scale sculpture for the centennial celebration of the university. The artist chose this sculpture, Kneeling Cow, as a prototype for enlargement, and renamed it Ruzi Niu in homage to the spirit of Lu Xun. When he completed the sculpture, Wu Guanzhong, and Yang Chen-Ning gave it inscriptions. Today, "Ruzi Niu" still serves as an important symbol of the spirit of Nanjing University, inspiring countless students.

Brave and Unyielding, Singing to the Sky

"Kneeling Cow expresses the moment when the cow tries to rise in the toughest state."
—Hsiung Ping-Ming

With its dynamic, inverted triangular structure, Kneeling Cow is the most dramatic of Hsiung's Buffalo sculptures: the animal's forelegs are kneeling on the ground, while its neck, head, and pair of sharp horns form a smooth, curved line that stretches upward toward the sky above. The cow's contracting stomach shrinks inward, while its bony back is marked with horizontal and vertical grooves that resemble whip scars. Hsiung Ping-Ming molds the bones and flesh of the cow with his hands, like the deeply wounded earth of his homeland. The cow's lean and rugged bottom rises stubbornly in mid-air, resembling Giacometti's portraits; through its skin and flesh, he sculpts the cow's soul and character. Kneeling Cow is an unyielding fighter who has been through the vicissitudes of life, endured hunger and physical pain, and trudged with a heavy load in search of the ideality in his heart. Hope grows out of its steps as it sings to the sky in the predicament and holds up the blue sky with its thin spine. In Kneeling Cow, we can see the tiniest fate of the individual as well as the epitome of the history of the nation. Its head is the everlasting spiritual force that will never yield, inspiring everyone's heart!

Price estimate:
HKD 500,000 – 700,000
USD 64,100 – 89,700

Auction Result:
HKD: 624,000