Oil and tempera on canvas

96.5×117 cm. 38×46 in.

Signed in Chinese and initials, and dated on bottom right
PROVENANCE
Eslite Gallery, Taipei
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

Gazing and Monologuing on Life
Yeh Tzu-Chi's Poetry in Painting

"The independence and integration of individual subject matters are the recollection and manifestation of life and the mind."
—— Yeh Tzu-Chi

Beginning in the 1970s, Yeh Tzu-Chi chose realism as his artistic style. For nearly fifty years, he has relentlessly portrayed people, objects, and landscapes with delicate brushwork in a classical atmosphere. He infuses seemingly mundane scenes with rich personal sentiments, which exude deep emotions with strong allegory. His works are immensely popular among collectors, moving many people's hearts.

In 1981, Yeh graduated from the Western Painting Group under the Department of Fine Arts at the Chinese Culture University. In 1987, he went to the United States to further his studies in the Art Department at Brooklyn College, CUNY. During the twenty years he lived in the United States, he has been married, had children, experienced the death of his parents, and witnessed the great changes of his time. His iconic series, Dialogue and Monologue, were born out of his American sojourn. Created in 1992 and 1993, the present lot, Stay, leads the viewer to gaze at a sailfish. Since the 1990s, Yeh has painted only two still lifes featuring fish, this being the one with the larger scale, therefore having special significance.

Crafting the Classical Spirit, Alluding the Losses in Life

Fish as a subject for still life paintings dates back to the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. Not only was it a means for painters to demonstrate their mastery of the art, but it also had a moral connotation: fish was once regarded as symbolising the origin of life. In Vanitas art, Dutch painters such as Isaac van Duynen often used fish as the metaphor for the slow passing of life. In Christian culture, fish refers to Jesus, while fishing serves as an allegorical story of facing death before resurrection.

The years 1989 and 1994 saw the deaths of Yeh's parents, which brought him unspeakable pain. Created in this period, Stay depicts the symbolic sailfish in solemn colours, lamenting the loss of his beloved ones. The work captures the essence of classical still life painting, portraying the subject in meticulous detail. Meanwhile, Yeh's use of a single light source lends the sailfish a sense of dignity and a divine presence.

Breaking away from Yeh's usual composition, in which he positions the subjects on a tabletop, this work places the sailfish in a void. The fish's tail and fins are relaxed, while its body curves slightly as if preserving the hopeful strength of leaping up again. Life and death seem to co-exist in the picture, and this is a question the artist subtly brings to the viewer.

In Recollection of Father

The sailfish is a common species in Yeh Tzu-Chi's hometown, Hualien, most of them robust and of enormous size. When juxtaposing the date of this work and its nostalgic and sentimental title, "Stay", one is reminded of the artist's father, who was once a soldier and the pillar of the family. However, there is no emphasis on the sailfish's massive body in the painting. Against the limitless backdrop, the fish alludes to the insignificance of human existence as well as the abrupt end to the life of his father. The work is a direct reference to death and loss, allowing a solemn and profound narrative to flow between the realms of the immortal and the mortal.

A Declaration for the True Heart

"The essence of an object under the historical testimony, like a work of art, is revealed in its full depth only to careful investigation, disclosing its delicate nuances and its true nature as a gateway to the human world."
—— Walter Benjamin, German philosopher

Like the lonely sailfish in the painting, choosing realism was once a lonely path for Yeh Tzu-Chi. Nevertheless, he has persisted in realistic painting and devoted himself to the careful considerations of objects, composition, colours and brushstrokes in the nearly fifty years of his career, speaking of eternity and the true heart.

Price estimate:
HKD 250,000 – 350,000
USD 32,100 – 44,900