Important Notice

CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART

The following five lots by artists Wu Yi, Ge Guanzhong, Xu Lei, Miao Xiaochun and Chen Ke range from beautiful, detailed contemporary ink works to sculptural digital paintings. Born in the 1960s and 1970s, these artists exhibit a deep and nuanced knowledge of both Chinese and European art history, often marrying the two in their work to create an innovative artistic vocabulary. While Wu Yi, Ge... CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART

The following five lots by artists Wu Yi, Ge Guanzhong, Xu Lei, Miao Xiaochun and Chen Ke range from beautiful, detailed contemporary ink works to sculptural digital paintings. Born in the 1960s and 1970s, these artists exhibit a deep and nuanced knowledge of both Chinese and European art history, often marrying the two in their work to create an innovative artistic vocabulary. While Wu Yi, Ge Guanzhong, and Xu Lei experiment with traditional Chinese styles, techniques and even myths and narratives (lots 60 - 62), Chen Ke and Miao Xiaochun reference Renaissance murals, placing them within current sociopolitical contexts (lot 63 and 64).

The present lot is a tranquil landscape by Wu Yi, an accomplished and versatile painter who is well-versed in classical Chinese painting. In the foreground, people at work are peppered across a peach orchard lush with pink blossoms, framed by a mountain and a moving train-the image suggesting a harmonious relationship between humans and nature. The recurring train motif, especially in Wu Yi's early works, stems from a nostalgic appreciation of trains in his childhood, also the subject of some of his earliest sketches and artworks. In an interview, the artist says, "When I was off school in the afternoon, I would go to Changchun Railway Station to observe trains. The blank pages in my elementary school books were full of paintings of trains... now I create oil paintings, ink paintings, with different themes, parallel creations with different content, which are perhaps formed by the unconscious painting methods since my childhood." (Zhu Li, "Wu Yi: Diagram of Cultivating Perfection - The Human Body as the Universe," 2019, CAFA ART INFO, online)

Born in Changchun in 1966, Wu Yi studied at Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). In his works, the artist uses washes of striking colour to update the traditional genre of Chinese ink painting and reflect contemporary socio-political contexts. "To start with, China's rapid economic development over the past 30 years has gradually standardized many social norms, and we can feel this change. The stability of the environment has an effect on people's mood. The new artists sense that their work is a sincere dialogue with nature and withdraw into quietness." (Artist quoted in Zhang Wenzhi, "Wu Yi & Li Yewei: The new generation instills calm, while still realizing the true essence," 2018, CAFA ART INFO, online)

Elsewhere, Wu Yi speaks about the importance of colour, believing that it plays a "decisive role" in evoking emotions in the viewer, and that it is not just a simple mirroring of nature but a conscious, subjective choice by the artist, "derived from reality but [which goes] beyond reality." (Artist quoted in Zhu Li, online)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site