Oil on wood board

29.5×42 cm. 11 5/8×16 1/2 in.

PROVENANCE
Soka Art, Taipei
Acquired directly by present private Asian collector from the above

Art of the Avant-Garde
Important Works of Beijing Opera and Abstraction

"Art movements should bear the determination of a man who has stripped off all clothes that covered his body, leaving everything behind to march earnestly toward the path of art."
——Zhao Shou

Born as Zhao Weixiong, Zhao Shou studied at the Guangzhou Municipal College of Fine Arts and the Shanghai Academy of Art from 1928 to 1932, training with Ting Yinyung, Chen Zhifo and Ni Yide, among others. Having worked hard and studied harder, Zhao Shou then moved to Japan and enrolled in the Kawabata School of Painting in 1933. The time in Japan was an eye-opening experience for him. He translated the Surrealist Manifesto and, in 1934, founded the Chinese Independent Art Association in Tokyo, an influential avant-garde art organisation in the Republican Era. Like a jade piece dropped in ashes, Zhao Shou was finally recognised by the world when Art News of China reported the quiet artist, who had been dormant for nearly half a century. In 1998, at the age of 87, he shocked the international art world upon receiving an invitation to show two of his works from the 1930s, Color and Let's Jump, in the monumental exhibition titled China, 5,000 Years at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. To his Fauvist and Surrealist rhapsodies, he added the naïvety and primitive quality of Chinese folk art, producing highly simplified pictures and faces that are hybrids of humans and animals, which exemplifies the virtuosity of a great master of his generation. Fewer than 120 of his oil paintings exist. This Spring auction will present two of his classic works, making it a rare occasion.

Emerges Guan Gong, the All-Powerful

Chinese opera was Zhao Shou's source of artistic inspiration as a child. The characters in Chinese opera were one of his favourite and most iconic themes in life, as demonstrated by the paintings titled Color, now in the Guangzhou Museum of Art's collection, and Opera Figure (Lot 23).

The bold and vibrant colours of traditional Chinese opera rise to the forefront in Opera Figure, as Zhao Shou paints the actor's face in the intense red often associated with Guan Gong ("Lord Guan"), a man of courage and loyalty. The figure's dark, wide-open eyes shoot out two beams of radiant light; his fierce moustache, tightly pursed lips and uplifting headpiece demonstrate that the military general is a character of bravery, righteousness, and valour. With just a few strokes, Zhao Shou captures the character's most subtle and essential qualities. Seeing the painting is like enjoying a wonderful theatrical performance worthy of applause.

With geometric compositions in the background, the warm yellow and cyan colours create a dramatic lighting effect that brings a touch of modernity to the work. Near the bottom of the painted Guan Gong, some human forms serve as a reference to the crowdedness belonging to the theatre. The hustle and bustle of the world is reflected in Guan Gong's eyes, as is life's two facets on and off the stage.

Mystical Symbols, Lightsome Leaps

Another work of Zhao Shou, Untitled (Lot 22), is filled with mysterious symbols reminiscent of ancient cave art or the dancing symbols in Joan Miró's surrealist paintings.

In the middle of the frame, a large cross and a coiling serpent form naturally evoke the Rod of Asclepius in ancient Greek mythology - the symbol of medicine. Meanwhile, the totem-like figure in the lower left corner turns as if animated by the power of rebirth, as embodied by the serpent-shaped rod. Swaying and leaping with lightness, the fantastical symbols in the painting lead the viewer's imagination to new heights, revealing the artist's attitude toward the cycle of life and the coexistence of man and nature. Amidst the noise and clamour of the world, Zhao Shou's simple but lively brushwork takes us deep into the realm of the subconscious, highlighting his pioneering vision as an artist of acclaim.

Price estimate:
HKD 40,000 - 60,000
USD 5,100 - 7,700