Five Artists to Watch

 

Lot 90. Li Xubai (1940 –). 李虚白 Listening to the Rain in Emerald Mountains,ink and light colour on paper,230 x 52cm. Estimate: £7,000 - 9,000

 

1. Li Xubai (1940-)

Place of Birth: Fuzhou

International Experience: moved to Hong Kong in 1979, then moved to Canada in 1996.

Signature Style: Li first taught himself western-derived painting before setting on a classically derived style using negative space to convey snow, rivers, clouds and mists, which radiates a glowing light that contrasts sharply with the darker tones of mountains and vegetation within his works. 

 

 

Lot 89. Zhang Huan (1965 –). 张洹 Untitled, ink on paper, 119 x 80cm. Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000

 

2. Zhang Huan (1965-) 

International Experience: moved to New York in 1998, now split his time between New York and Shanghai. 

Signature Style: Zhang is known for his subversive and provocative work across multiple media. He is described by Pace Gallery as ‘one of the most vital, influential and provocative contemporary artists working today’ and while he is well known for his performance art, ink art has been central to his artistic practice. Zhang’s work ‘Family Tree’ graced the cover of the catalogue of the seminal Contemporary Ink exhibition at  the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ‘Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China’, 2013-14. Zhang's works exemplify the contrast between contemporary and traditional Chinese art.

 

 

Lot 54. Li Jin (1958 –). 李津 Enjoy the Cool,ink and colour on paper,44.9 x 44.5cm. Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000

 

3. Li Jin (1958 -) 

Place of Birth: Tianjin

Signature Style: Li Jin is considered one of the leading artists of the New Literati Movement. He formed his playful humour-filled style in the early 1990s, where he painted scenes based on food, lust and the everyday. His works are in the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the National Arts Museum of China in Beijing, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among others.

 

Lot 10. Wang Wuxie (Wucius Wong, 1936 –). 王無邪 Expression in Calligraphy #29, ink and colour on paper, 64.5 x 112cm. Estimate: £8,000 - 12,000

 

4. Wucius Wong (1936 –)

Place of Birth: Guangzhou

International Experience: Wong moved to Hong Kong as an infant, he later studied in America for four years in the 1960s before returning to Hong Kong. 

Signature Style: Wong is considered a leading figure of the Hong Kong New Ink Movement. He moved to Hong Kong from Guangzhou in 1946 and studied under Lui Shou Kwan and then worked as a scholar producing dynamic paintings which fuse Chinese classical paintings with inspiration from both Chinese and western literature and western graphic design.

 

Lot 25. Qin Feng (1961 –). 秦风 Civilization Landscape Series 0017, ink on paper, 125 x 200cm. Estimate: £18,000 - 22,000

 

5. Qin Feng (1961-)

Place of birth: Xinjiang Autonomous Region

International experience: Taught at the Berlin University of Art 1996 to 1999, exhibited in Venice for the Biennale in 2016. 

Signature style: inspired by abstract expressionism Qin Feng is one of the foremost representatives of China's avant-garde movement. His work is characterised by bold expressive calligraphic strokes. 

 

An Odyssey in Ink: The Nanyue Pavilion Collection of Contemporary Chinese Paintings, will take place on 29 September 2020. Please contact Lazarus Halstead, Head of Asian Art, for more details:

Lazarus Halstead

lazarus@chiswickauctions.co.uk