Tempera and oil on linen

25.4×30.5 cm. 10×12 in

Signed in Chinese on bottom right
EXHIBITED
11 May – 30 Jun 2013, Tzu-chi YEH Solo Exhibition——Monologue．Dialogue, Works 1980-2013, The Eslite Gallery, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Important Private Collection, Asia

Bank Filled with Longing for Home
Born in Hualien, Taiwan, Yeh Tzu-Chi devoted himself in painting from an early age. In 1981, he graduated from the western painting major of Fine Arts Department, Chinese Culture University in Taiwan. In 1989, he acquired his master degree from Brooklyn College of City University of New York, USA. The vibrant urban life in New York nourished his artistic creation for the following twenty years, resulting in the novelty and diversity of his artistic characteristic. Along with this process, the realistic painting language of Yeh Tzu-Chi was well preserved and developed. Through his exquisite and firm touch of the brush, the moment and objects from past time emerge as a vivid expression of his longing for home, evoking a wave of nostalgia inside the viewer’s heart. In 2006, Yeh Tzu-Chi left New York and returned to the hermit life in Hualien. While teaching in National Dong Hwa University, he also held solo exhibitions in major galleries with good reviews flooding in. As a faithful Christian, Yeh Tzu-Chi interprets the circle of his life as the best annotation of the Biblical saying – There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. Beneath his most famous still-life paintings, of which the creation spans over ten years, lies the connection of Time and all the turns in earthly life.
The work, Pink Piggy, which was presented in his important solo exhibition Monologue · Dialogue, was initiated during the artist’s residence in New York. The piggy imagery is based on a piggy bank （Pu Man） of his son. The literal meaning of its Chinese name is ’to break the filled container’, originating from the East Jin Dynasty. It later developed into the concept of saving pot with the shape of a pig – the plump abdomen of pig represents the accumulation and sufficiency of wealth. Every penny inside the piggy bank bears the artist’s deepest memory of his family and pictures his life residing abroad. With a delicate touch of his brush, Yeh Tzu-Chi sketched the simple and perfectly round piggy. The clear and concise composition enhances the lightness and smoothness peculiar to tempura, while childishness and playfulness rise from the pink color. However, this painting of rich personal emotion was only completed several years after Yeh Tzu-Chi returned back to Taiwan, where his longing for home was finally fulfilled. At an age knowing the decrees of Heaven, Yeh Tzu-Chi was brought back home, back to his familiar mountain and sea, back to the place where his dream began, with the little piggy bank returning fully loaded.

Price estimate:
HKD: 70, 000 - 90, 000
USD: 9, 000 - 11, 500

Auction Result:
HKD: 188,800