Mixed media on wood board

65 × 80 cm. 25 5/8 × 31 1/2 in.

Signed in Chinese, pinyin and dated on upper middle

LITERATURE
2009, A Piece of Paper A Piece of Plywood, Red Bridge Gallery, Shanghai, p. 30-31
2012, Liu Wei: A Solo Painter, Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei, p. 148-149 and 226
EXHIBITED
10 Sep – 15 Oct 2009, A Piece of Paper A Piece of Plywood, Red Bridge Gallery, Shanghai

PROVENANCE
Red Bridge Gallery, Shanghai
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

Instinctively Growing Vegetation, Lush Flowers and Plants
Liu Wei Dispels with Artifice in an Invaluable Landscape

In the Western art world Liu Wei has a reputation as a contemporary pioneer and was described by art critic Li Xianting as the Chinese artist with the "greatest expression of emotions," making a name for himself with his varied style, unique talent and free critical thinking. However, from 2003 Liu left behind the visual narrative approach that made him famous and switched his creative focus to "un-peopled landscapes" from where he scaled another creative peak, observing: "Traditional pure landscapes are in fact the externalization of psychological landscapes and my landscapes are ‘anti-landscape,’ which is to say a little alternative, dislocated and complex. To my mind, landscapes can encompass too many things and are not just pure environment. For example, social landscapes, problematic landscapes, characters, events, existence and phenomenon can also be part of the internal layout of a landscape. "

Ingenious Emptiness and Colour Features

Broadly speaking, Liu Wei’s landscape motif works can be divided into two separate categories: one involves continuing the iconic brushwork of his earlier works in which "festering places are as brightly colourful as peaches and plums," wherein Liu imbues scenes with the beautiful vitality inherent in decay. The second category runs counter to the former and involves refining colours into black, white and grey hues, but still creates a cacophony of rich change. However, fewer than 10 works belong to this latter category.

The work Landscape, completed in 2009, comes from the second category and is infused with a distinctive and highly experimental spirit. The piece, rather uniquely, is painted on wooden boards, which means it does not contain white blank spaces as is common but instead reveals the original colour of the wooden boards through such spaces. As part of this rich transition, the connection and overlapping of black and white constructs a kaleidoscope-like natural visual arena, while in the painting the light wood-yellow of the board is transformed into the colour of soil. This both highlights the life of the vegetation and showcases the ingenious way in which Liu inverts his own use of materials and colours.

Naturally Formed Living Ink

In the painting, the vast wilderness extends into the distance, while on the left side branches hang down horizontally at an angle and a tree stands alone in the centre, boldly differentiating near and distant space, the layering and order of the empty scene creating a powerful sense of perspective that feels simultaneously distant but close at hand. The abstract brush work in the lower part of the painting takes up two-thirds of the work, utilizing extraordinary loose and rapid strokes to create a naturally formed wild and leisurely appeal. The light ink base of the densely packed fine lines is covered with wild cursive-like thick ink and permeated with bursts of grey and white, weaving together the undulating interactions of Yin and Yang, repleting with the charm of "broken ink" employed in traditional Chinese landscape painting. Moreover, the frame fails to hold back the random brushwork as it spreads into the space of the outer layer with vigorous abandon, extending the life energy of the boundless spreading vegetation, blending the interior and exterior of the work into a single harmonious whole.

Integrity of Character, Vegetation as Poetry

Art Critic Chia Chi Jason Wang has said: "Liu Wei remains deeply interested in how to re-present the process of ‘formation, existence, destruction and emptiness’ of naturally growing objects. Recently he has also allowed the infusion of time, enabling nature to unfold according to its own rhythms, and as a result his paintings become a substitute for viewers to witness, perceive and contemplate ‘time’. " In this context, the artist’s inclusion of time in his un-peopled landscapes embraces abstraction and re-presentation as part of a single whole, showcasing the coexistence of "timeliness" and "sense of calm" in nature. This work is infused with contented pastoral poetry reflected in the words: "Picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, one pensively views the southern mountains, returning to an ultimate beauty where "plants behave instinctively" and "emptiness is colour."

Price estimate:
HKD: 600,000 – 800,000
USD: 76,600 - 102,200

Auction Result:
HKD: 780,000