New Chinese Painting
See also : Current art Mountains in China
Chronology : 1988 1990-1999 1992 1996 1997 2000-2009 2001 2006 2010 to now
Chronology : 1988 1990-1999 1992 1996 1997 2000-2009 2001 2006 2010 to now
1988 The Zen Garden
2019 SOLD for RMB 144M including premium
Wu Guanzhong is the most complete artist of the post-Maoist period. Resolutely modernist and inspired by both East and West, he makes up for the time lost during the Cultural Revolution by treating many themes from realism to abstraction in all the graphic techniques.
Wu begins with a preliminary sketch that allows him to choose between an oil on canvas and an ink on paper which he paints in an impulsive gesture. Looking for the elemental forms that constitute his subject, he reworks his figuration and his color up to an ultimate state. Lion Grove Garden, ink and colors on paper 144 x 297 cm painted in 1988, is an example led by the artist to an almost complete abstraction.
The city of Suzhou, 100 km away from Shanghai, is famous for its gardens, several of which have been classified together as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Lion Grove was created by a Zen monk under the Yuan dynasty and was so named for the likeness of one of its rocks with a reclining lion. The garden is bordered by a pond and includes a grotto.
Wu is interested in this site maintained without religious attributes. His meditation brings a pattern of lines and spots of various colors, superseding the real topography of the rock. Two pavilions and a bridge appear beyond the rock. Simplified shapes simulate visitors in the pavilions and fish in the pond.
The whole is looking like a huge cliff by the sea with boats. The shape predominated the theme, responding to the artist's deepest conceptions. Do not search for the lion.
Lion Grove Garden was sold for RMB 115M including premium by Poly on June 3, 2011 and will be sold on June 2 in Beijing by China Guardian, lot 383.
Wu begins with a preliminary sketch that allows him to choose between an oil on canvas and an ink on paper which he paints in an impulsive gesture. Looking for the elemental forms that constitute his subject, he reworks his figuration and his color up to an ultimate state. Lion Grove Garden, ink and colors on paper 144 x 297 cm painted in 1988, is an example led by the artist to an almost complete abstraction.
The city of Suzhou, 100 km away from Shanghai, is famous for its gardens, several of which have been classified together as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Lion Grove was created by a Zen monk under the Yuan dynasty and was so named for the likeness of one of its rocks with a reclining lion. The garden is bordered by a pond and includes a grotto.
Wu is interested in this site maintained without religious attributes. His meditation brings a pattern of lines and spots of various colors, superseding the real topography of the rock. Two pavilions and a bridge appear beyond the rock. Simplified shapes simulate visitors in the pavilions and fish in the pond.
The whole is looking like a huge cliff by the sea with boats. The shape predominated the theme, responding to the artist's deepest conceptions. Do not search for the lion.
Lion Grove Garden was sold for RMB 115M including premium by Poly on June 3, 2011 and will be sold on June 2 in Beijing by China Guardian, lot 383.
1992 Zeng Fanzhi begins with the Hospital
2013 SOLD 113 MHK$ including premium
When Zeng Fanzhi left the art school, he was much influenced by expressionism. The society of humans is cruel, and painting shall not be complacent.
In 1992, aged 28, he took as a theme the hospital of incurable illness (Xiehe hospital) close to his home. Many patients without psychological identification are queuing for their drug, infusion or injection. The mind of each of them is focused on the vain hope brought by the therapy.
Same as the German characters by Dix or Grosz, these Chinese men are ugly in their banality. Their life is already artificial. Zeng will soon afterwards vary the situation of his characters by the unlimited possibilities of the theme of the mask.
For displaying his tragic vision of mankind through the hospital, Zeng made three triptychs in oil on canvas. The second, especially morbid, 179 x 465 cm overall, was sold for £ 2.76 million including premium by Phillips de Pury on October 13, 2007.
On November 23 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells the Hospital Triptych No. 3, 150 x 345 cm overall. Here is the link to the catalog .
The estimate is not published although this lot is offered with a third party warranty. The reasons may be altogether the extreme rarity of these triptychs and the enthusiasm created by the sale of the Last Supper by Sotheby's for HK $ 180M including premium on 5 October 2013.
POST SALE COMMENT
The increase is confirmed for Zeng's rating : HK $ 113M including premium for this triptych.
In 1992, aged 28, he took as a theme the hospital of incurable illness (Xiehe hospital) close to his home. Many patients without psychological identification are queuing for their drug, infusion or injection. The mind of each of them is focused on the vain hope brought by the therapy.
Same as the German characters by Dix or Grosz, these Chinese men are ugly in their banality. Their life is already artificial. Zeng will soon afterwards vary the situation of his characters by the unlimited possibilities of the theme of the mask.
For displaying his tragic vision of mankind through the hospital, Zeng made three triptychs in oil on canvas. The second, especially morbid, 179 x 465 cm overall, was sold for £ 2.76 million including premium by Phillips de Pury on October 13, 2007.
On November 23 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells the Hospital Triptych No. 3, 150 x 345 cm overall. Here is the link to the catalog .
The estimate is not published although this lot is offered with a third party warranty. The reasons may be altogether the extreme rarity of these triptychs and the enthusiasm created by the sale of the Last Supper by Sotheby's for HK $ 180M including premium on 5 October 2013.
POST SALE COMMENT
The increase is confirmed for Zeng's rating : HK $ 113M including premium for this triptych.
1994 Shuangyan by Wu Guanzhong
2018 SOLD for RMB 113M including premium by Poly
1996 Group with the Red Scarf
2017 SOLD for HK$ 105M including premium
In his early series on Hospitals and Meats, Zeng Fanzhi brings a cruel vision of the relationship between suffering and indifference, and between human beings and flesh. A native of Wuhan, Zeng moved to Beijing in 1993. Like Kirchner in Berlin in 1911, he did not succeed in establishing in the big city a network of social relations that met his emotional need.
He then begins his series of the Masks showing the dissimulation of people behind social conventions applicable to all, erasing the originality of each personality. At the same time Zhang Xiaogang's Big Family expresses a similar discomfort of identifying the personality but in an opposite way : individuals are all physically different but their bleak lives are interchangeable.
The red scarf of the Young Pioneers is a rallying symbol of Zeng's masked characters. It also expresses the pride and unease of his own difference. This recruitment is offered to almost all schoolchildren as an incentive to enter the party line but the young Zeng, too bad a pupil or perhaps too emotional or undisciplined, never got it.
It is usually difficult to decide in a Zeng Mask image whether or not we see the real face of a character. This rule has two rare exceptions: self-portraits without the artificial smile and groups where the repetition of the same lines on all the figures reveals the presence of the masks.
Mask 1996 No. 6 is an oil on canvas in diptych for a 200 x 360 cm total size. Eight young Chinese people with the same smiling face, differentiated by their height and their hairstyle, are lined up like for a group photography, with hands on the shoulders of others to simulate their comradeship. Everyone has the red scarf confirming their lack of freedom.
Sold for HK $ 75M including premium by Christie's on May 24, 2008 from a lower estimate of HK $ 15M, No. 6 suddenly attracted the attention of the art market on the young painters of the Chinese social mockery, Zeng, Zhang and Yue Minjun, obscuring for a few years the variety of Chinese painting subsequent to the events of Tiananmen Square. No. 6 is back, to be sold on April 3 by Poly in Hong Kong, lot 173.
He then begins his series of the Masks showing the dissimulation of people behind social conventions applicable to all, erasing the originality of each personality. At the same time Zhang Xiaogang's Big Family expresses a similar discomfort of identifying the personality but in an opposite way : individuals are all physically different but their bleak lives are interchangeable.
The red scarf of the Young Pioneers is a rallying symbol of Zeng's masked characters. It also expresses the pride and unease of his own difference. This recruitment is offered to almost all schoolchildren as an incentive to enter the party line but the young Zeng, too bad a pupil or perhaps too emotional or undisciplined, never got it.
It is usually difficult to decide in a Zeng Mask image whether or not we see the real face of a character. This rule has two rare exceptions: self-portraits without the artificial smile and groups where the repetition of the same lines on all the figures reveals the presence of the masks.
Mask 1996 No. 6 is an oil on canvas in diptych for a 200 x 360 cm total size. Eight young Chinese people with the same smiling face, differentiated by their height and their hairstyle, are lined up like for a group photography, with hands on the shoulders of others to simulate their comradeship. Everyone has the red scarf confirming their lack of freedom.
Sold for HK $ 75M including premium by Christie's on May 24, 2008 from a lower estimate of HK $ 15M, No. 6 suddenly attracted the attention of the art market on the young painters of the Chinese social mockery, Zeng, Zhang and Yue Minjun, obscuring for a few years the variety of Chinese painting subsequent to the events of Tiananmen Square. No. 6 is back, to be sold on April 3 by Poly in Hong Kong, lot 173.
1997 The Zhou Village by Wu Guanzhong
2016 SOLD for HK$ 236M including premium by Poly
narrated in 2020
Wu Guanzhong is a full range artist who integrated tradition and modernism. After the torments of the Cultural Revolution, he endeavored to make people love his native region, Jiangnan, south of the Yangtze River. He observes landscapes and villages by bringing the utmost importance to their geometric decomposition.
Suzhou is a big city enjoying 2,500 years of history. Wu took in 1983 as one of his favorite themes the Lion Grove Garden, with a texture of rocks that reaches the limits of abstraction. An ink and colors on paper 144 x 297 cm painted in 1988 was sold for RMB 144M including premium by China Guardian on June 2, 2019.
The Zhou village is also located in Suzhou. On April 4, 2016, Poly sold for HK $ 236M including premium a painting 148 x 297 cm made in 1997, which transposed to oil an ink and colors made in 1986. It is illustrated in the report of the sale shared by Art Market Monitor.
The old village is appealing to tourists, with its pattern of houses huddled together. Suzhou is the Venice of the East which amazed Marco Polo with its canals crossed by a multitude of small stone bridges.
The image is seen in a slightly plunging perspective. The village is symmetrical, with its central axis on the very narrow street leading to the bridge. The edge of the canal and the horizon form an oval, like in a fish eye photo. This harmony of curves is reinforced by the arched shapes of the bridge.
Suzhou is a big city enjoying 2,500 years of history. Wu took in 1983 as one of his favorite themes the Lion Grove Garden, with a texture of rocks that reaches the limits of abstraction. An ink and colors on paper 144 x 297 cm painted in 1988 was sold for RMB 144M including premium by China Guardian on June 2, 2019.
The Zhou village is also located in Suzhou. On April 4, 2016, Poly sold for HK $ 236M including premium a painting 148 x 297 cm made in 1997, which transposed to oil an ink and colors made in 1986. It is illustrated in the report of the sale shared by Art Market Monitor.
The old village is appealing to tourists, with its pattern of houses huddled together. Suzhou is the Venice of the East which amazed Marco Polo with its canals crossed by a multitude of small stone bridges.
The image is seen in a slightly plunging perspective. The village is symmetrical, with its central axis on the very narrow street leading to the bridge. The edge of the canal and the horizon form an oval, like in a fish eye photo. This harmony of curves is reinforced by the arched shapes of the bridge.
1997 Abstraction in the Lotus Pond
2016 SOLD for HK$ 106M including premium
Wu Guanzhong assured the transition between classicism and modernism in Chinese graphic art. He was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and the works of his early career are barely known. Like Zhang Daqian before him he had the merit of being a complete artist able to master a variety of techniques, styles and themes.
Wu was watching the earth as an environment for the lifestyle, from wide landscapes around the world up to tiny details in the blossoming trees. He successfully practiced oil painting and returned to the traditional ink when he wanted to position spots of pure colors.
1997 is a year of great creativity. Freed of threats at 78, he continues to explore many possibilities of the artistic language. The Zhou Village, sold for HK $ 236M including premium by Poly in April 2016, is an oil on canvas, the highest recorded auction price for a Chinese painting in that technique.
Wu also resolutely entered contemporary art through his practice of very large formats. I had previously discussed in this column an ink and colors on paper 144 x 368 cm also from 1997 that remained unsold at Poly in Beijing on 2 June 2012. Although I can not firmly prove it, I am convinced that it is the same artwork that is coming for sale by Poly in Hong Kong on October 3, lot 139.
The theme of the lotus pond is an excuse for a color balance that comes close to abstraction. The field is unlimited as in a Pollock. The bright spots compensate for the lack of perspective by suggesting the depth of the bottom. The leaves and their reflections are interwoven in a tight pattern.
Wu was watching the earth as an environment for the lifestyle, from wide landscapes around the world up to tiny details in the blossoming trees. He successfully practiced oil painting and returned to the traditional ink when he wanted to position spots of pure colors.
1997 is a year of great creativity. Freed of threats at 78, he continues to explore many possibilities of the artistic language. The Zhou Village, sold for HK $ 236M including premium by Poly in April 2016, is an oil on canvas, the highest recorded auction price for a Chinese painting in that technique.
Wu also resolutely entered contemporary art through his practice of very large formats. I had previously discussed in this column an ink and colors on paper 144 x 368 cm also from 1997 that remained unsold at Poly in Beijing on 2 June 2012. Although I can not firmly prove it, I am convinced that it is the same artwork that is coming for sale by Poly in Hong Kong on October 3, lot 139.
The theme of the lotus pond is an excuse for a color balance that comes close to abstraction. The field is unlimited as in a Pollock. The bright spots compensate for the lack of perspective by suggesting the depth of the bottom. The leaves and their reflections are interwoven in a tight pattern.
2001 The Traitor with the Yellow Tie
2013 SOLD 180 MHK$ including premium
The mask in the series of paintings by Zeng Fanzhi is used to express what is artificial in the integration of young Chinese into globalization.
The mask is worn by a single character or by all characters in a group. In the latter case, the political message of the artist becomes stronger and more readable.
On 24 May 2008, Christie's sold HK $ 75M including premium Mask Series 1996 No. 6, oil on canvas 200 x 360 cm. Eight Chinese are aligned and facing the viewer as happy members of a winning sports team. The smile is an effect brought by the mask, but the red scarf recalls the harsh realities of their social condition.
On October 5 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells The Last Supper. This oil on canvas was painted in 2001 in large format, 220 x 400 cm. This is in some way the political and artistic culmination of the entire Mask series, and the auction house expects more than HK $ 80M. The artwork comes from the Ullens collection. It is illustrated on the release shared by ArtDaily.
It is a remake of Leonardo's Last Supper. Behind the masks, the thirteen characters are young Chinese, still recognizable by their red scarves. The traitor has no scarf but a golden tie. He has already decided to imitate the West and sell himself to capitalists.
The next step could be a question: who is right between the twelve traditionalists and the traitor, regarding the development of contemporary Chinese civilization?
POST SALE COMMENT
Introduced as the culmination of the first part of Zeng's career, this painting was sold for HK $ 180M including premium.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
The mask is worn by a single character or by all characters in a group. In the latter case, the political message of the artist becomes stronger and more readable.
On 24 May 2008, Christie's sold HK $ 75M including premium Mask Series 1996 No. 6, oil on canvas 200 x 360 cm. Eight Chinese are aligned and facing the viewer as happy members of a winning sports team. The smile is an effect brought by the mask, but the red scarf recalls the harsh realities of their social condition.
On October 5 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells The Last Supper. This oil on canvas was painted in 2001 in large format, 220 x 400 cm. This is in some way the political and artistic culmination of the entire Mask series, and the auction house expects more than HK $ 80M. The artwork comes from the Ullens collection. It is illustrated on the release shared by ArtDaily.
It is a remake of Leonardo's Last Supper. Behind the masks, the thirteen characters are young Chinese, still recognizable by their red scarves. The traitor has no scarf but a golden tie. He has already decided to imitate the West and sell himself to capitalists.
The next step could be a question: who is right between the twelve traditionalists and the traitor, regarding the development of contemporary Chinese civilization?
POST SALE COMMENT
Introduced as the culmination of the first part of Zeng's career, this painting was sold for HK $ 180M including premium.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
CUI RUZHUO
1
2006 Landscape in Snow
2014 SOLD for HK$ 184M by Poly
Cui Ruzhuo assembles polyptychs composed of vertical panels painted in line and wash on paper in his signature finger ink technique. A single monumental work may occupy a full wall in an exhibition.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity. His favorite is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men.
Landscape in snow, painted in 2006, was sold for HK $ 184M by Poly on April 7, 2014, lot 2017.
This ink and color on paper is an unfragmented hand scroll 64 cm x 36 m plus a frontispiece.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity. His favorite is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men.
Landscape in snow, painted in 2006, was sold for HK $ 184M by Poly on April 7, 2014, lot 2017.
This ink and color on paper is an unfragmented hand scroll 64 cm x 36 m plus a frontispiece.
2
2011 Lotus
2011 SOLD for HK$ 124M by Christie's
Cui Ruzhuo assembles polyptychs composed of vertical panels painted in line and wash on paper in his signature finger ink technique. A single monumental work may occupy a full wall in an exhibition.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity. On the theme of the lotus, a set of eight scrolls 247 x 123 cm each was sold at lot 2237 for HK $ 124M from a lower estimate of HK $ 40M by Christie's on 29 November 2011. The lotus are drawn with distorted shapes.
This work is dated from early summer xinmao year matching 2011 CE, a few months before its auction.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity. On the theme of the lotus, a set of eight scrolls 247 x 123 cm each was sold at lot 2237 for HK $ 124M from a lower estimate of HK $ 40M by Christie's on 29 November 2011. The lotus are drawn with distorted shapes.
This work is dated from early summer xinmao year matching 2011 CE, a few months before its auction.
3
2013 The Grand Snowing Mountains
2016 SOLD for HK$ 307M by Poly
The Grand Snowing Mountains, inspired by Jiangnan, was painted in ink and color on paper by Cui in 2013.
It was probably unpaid after being sold by Poly on April 7, 2013 for HK $ 236M, lot 2314, just after being prepared as a set of eight mounted panels 292 x 143 cm.
It was sold at the same venue on April 4, 2016 for HK $ 307M from a lower estimate of HK $ 150M as a mounted set of six for an overall 300 x 870 cm, lot 1213.
The similarity between the two lots leaves no doubt that it is the same piece.
It was probably unpaid after being sold by Poly on April 7, 2013 for HK $ 236M, lot 2314, just after being prepared as a set of eight mounted panels 292 x 143 cm.
It was sold at the same venue on April 4, 2016 for HK $ 307M from a lower estimate of HK $ 150M as a mounted set of six for an overall 300 x 870 cm, lot 1213.
The similarity between the two lots leaves no doubt that it is the same piece.
4
2017 Twelve Screens of Landscape
2017 SOLD for RMB 240M by Poly
A set of twelve painted in 2017 by Cui was sold for RMB 240M by Poly in December 2017.
It is illustrated in the post sale report shared by The Value. The reported title, Twelve screens of finger ink landscape, refers to the Cui's signature painting technique.
It is illustrated in the post sale report shared by The Value. The reported title, Twelve screens of finger ink landscape, refers to the Cui's signature painting technique.
