" I am in love with painting in every minute and every moment. I arrange all the things, every color, every tugging action, and every sequent symbol. All of them are touching in my heart, talking to my sake of painting; it's a part of my life." – Wang Yan Cheng THE ETHEREAL BEAUTY OF LYRICAL ABSTRACTION Wang Yan Cheng graduated from the Shandong Fine Arts Academy where he studied extensively about the orthodox of Western paintings and discovered that this means of artistic expression renew the limits of the traditions of Chinese painting. Wang's artistic approach induces him to constantly renew and reinterpret that ultimately leads him to abandon the constraints of figurative art and engages in his interpretation of lyrical abstraction. When he traveled to Madrid, London and other places, he analyzed and observed many of Titian, Rembrandt and Poussin's works and understood that his artistic language stems from the basis of traditional arts, coupled with a reconstruction of Western techniques and Chinese traditions. Wang's visit to Paris in 1989 further enriches his experiences as a painter and inspired him in many ways. In this period, he fully explored and experimented with this newfound artistic freedom. Wang's admiration for Cézanne and Picasso gave him many inspirations in this regard, inspiring him to reinterpret form through space, where areas of light and contrast of the composition is deliberately utilized to convey a sensual reality that is uniquely of the artist's experiences. He reasoned that elements such as symbols, colors, areas of light and contrast and most importantly the void have the aggregate effect of transpiring the sentiments and immediate emotions of the painter. Other established artists including Georges Mathieu and Gerard Schneider were important contributors to the art scene in post-war Paris, harmoniously combining lyrical imagery and naturalistic landscapes in their artistic productions. In reference to the present lot, the dreamy composition exhibits an air of flowing lightness. The brushstrokes are meticulous and bold, soft and strong, delicate and free flowing of great visual appeal, enticing the viewer to enter into Wang's subjective imaginative realm. Wang continued to explore the physical properties and relationship of colors change and their impact on the viewer's vision throughout his artistic career. He understands that an artist's memory and intuition trigger the rhythmic movements of his brush, shown through his mastery in utilization of color overlay and highlights in contrasting rich colors where each layer of paint is further complimented by the next brushstroke. Sans Titre illuminates the case in point as he scraped, reapplied, layerby- layer of continuous and repeated brushstrokes connotative of depths. He magnificently portrays bursts of color that is connotative of light as it emerges from the flickering areas of darkness in tones of amber red, orange, ocher, brown and black, adding a sense of energetic dimension to the overall composition. In essence, the present lot captivated a frozen moment in time through lines that appear connected and broken, smooth and textured, light and heavy like a mirage where the figurative elements emerges and disappears through Wang's approach in lyrical abstraction.