Oil on canvas

100.5×200 cm. 39 5/8×78 3/4 in.

Titled and signed in Chinese, dated on the reverse
EXHIBITED
28 Sep – 27 Oct 2013, Yan Bing: My Labor II, Gallery Yang, Beijing
15 – 18 May 2014, Art Basel Hong Kong, Gallery Yang Booth,
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong

PROVENANCE
Gallery Yang, Beijing
Acquired directly by original collector from the above
14 Dec 2022, China Guardian Beijing Autumn Auction, Lot 1543
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Gallery Yang, Beijing

The Towering Might of the Mundane, Pouring Forth Life's Boundless Expanse
Gazing into the Spiritual Wilderness of Yan Bing

"Labouring like an ox; offering like the Earth."
—— Lu Yao, Writer

As a leading artist of the post-80s generation, Yan Bing has garnered significant attention in the art market in recent years, with his works achieving record-breaking prices and high demand. Born in 1980 in Xinghuawan Village, Tianshui, Gansu Province, Yan Bing taught himself painting during his middle school years. Despite his family's objections, Yan Bing was determined to pursue his artistic dreams and eventually gained admission to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, becoming a protégé of renowned artist Liu Xiaodong and the first from his village to attend an art academy.

Since 2009, Yan Bing has drawn inspiration from the landscapes and objects of his hometown, developing series including Soil, Potatoes Potatoes, Cowhide, Mushrooms, and Apples. His solo exhibitions at Taikang Space in Beijing, Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai, Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou, and Start Museum in Shanghai have earned him widespread acclaim and collector interest. In his work, the "microcosmic" grandeur of the objects points to a "spiritual essence," offering viewers a sense of peace and the courage to contemplate the world through repeated gazes.

The Nebulous Power of Reconstructing Homeland

Since 2009, Yan Bing has centred his work around soil. By incorporating soil with other found objects, he creates installations such as Grain and Stove. His solo exhibition Yan Bing: Temperature at UCCA Beijing in 2009 marked his rise to prominence. Among these works, New Earth No. 6 (Lot 59), completed in 2013, stands out as an innovative piece. While the work appears to be a painting, it is actually a hybrid of sculpture and painting, capturing the process of "new soil" being preserved and nurtured, and embodying the artists' cultivation both artistically and spiritually.

The Sculptural Essence of Painting

When creating the New Earth series, Yan Bing first crafts a unique frame; then, he uses soil from his hometown in Gansu, moulding it within the frame. This process symbolises the "planting" of a world within the painting. Straw naturally embedded in the soil is naturally preserved, adding authenticity to the miniature landscape. The "new earth" is depicted in a ploughed, grain-like form, showcasing the soil's malleable texture and its primal, abstract tension. In New Earth No. 6, the artist begins at a central point, spreading the soil in a spiral pattern. What seems small and insignificant gradually coalesces into a powerful, vortex-like force, evoking the energy of a nebula.

Sowing Spring Breeze in a Plot of Heart

Compared to the size of an actual farmland, New Earth No. 6 is less than a thousandth of an acre, yet it feels as though it represents a personal field of dreams at heart—what to plant, whether peaches, plums, or the dreams of spring. At its core, the growth of all things depends on the nurturing of the land, and human survival relies on its sustenance. The objects that grow from the soil are like monuments recording the imprints of life, expressing the pure and genuine relationship between humans and nature. Gazing at the soil in the painting is like standing on a hill in one's hometown, with a nostalgic gaze piercing through memories, fostering self-reflection and a reminder to stay grounded while looking toward the future.

"Who are the swallows peck at the spring soil?" For Yan Bing, the soil he plants is the foundation for all lives, much like swallows building their nests with mud. Through repeated moulding and refinement, the "new earth" gains the fertility to sustain life, awaiting the seeds that will bring forth the boundless vitality of autumn's harvest.

The Sole Landscape: The Boundless Tension of Cowhide

Following the Soil series, Yan Bing gradually returned to painting, choosing "cowhide" as his subject—a material deeply familiar to him. Since 2011, he has meticulously depicted cowhide in a realistic style, presenting it as the sole landscape on vast canvases, devoid of any background. This focus on the hide as the only subject invites contemplation and introspection, stressing on the tactile and psychological truths. The work presented in the auction, Cowhide No. 12 (Lot 58), completed in 2013, is the fifth-largest "cowhide" piece seen on the secondary market. Spanning two meters in length, it magnificently captures the ultimate expanse of a single piece of cowhide.

Toward Sweeping Grandeur of World Map

In a bid to most faithfully capture the tactile essence of cowhide, Yan Bing has internalized the insights gleaned from his previous sculptural work, channelling them into the plane of painting. Rather than "painted," one might say his Cowhide No. 12 has been "sculpted" into being with the artist's hands. Those pelt-like passages, so lifelike from afar, shimmering with gradients of light and shadow, reveal upon closer inspection a tumult of impastoed pigment—flickering flames that have been coalesced onto the canvas, distilling the very vitality of life. Those blooming splotches of russet, reduced to a geometric, minimalist purity, speak to the sweeping grandeur of a world map—as if, in gazing upon the work, one surveys the majesty of the continents and oceans, the product of eons of tectonic upheaval. Beneath the veneer of rational realism lies a realm of subtle, beguiling sensuality, which ultimately coalesces into an autonomous artistic presence.

Forged by experiences with the yellow soil, Yan Bing's character has been shaped into one that is grounded and humble, with steadfast simplicity and direct expression. In his Cowhide series, this rootedness in the rhythms of his ancestral homeland converges with the storied history of China's agrarian civilization—a saga of diligence and grandeur told through the vivid sensations of communing with a beast of burden. Therein, the artist discerns the profound and expansive dimensions of the world. Yan Bing has steadily amplified his motifs ever since, subjecting them to a rapt, near-silent scrutiny that allows him to apprehend the majestic bearing of even the most diminutive life forms. In this manner, he constructs a singular "spiritual expanse"—one in which the cowhide emerges as a portal, a key to the mysteries of the cosmos and the self.

Price estimate:
HKD 800,000 – 1,500,000
USD 102,600 – 192,300