Lot 182
Guanyin Mountain and Tamsui River
LIAO Chi-chun (Taiwanese, 1902 - 1976)
1974
Oil on canvas
31 x 41 cm
Estimate
TWD 6,000,000-8,000,000
HKD 1,429,000-1,905,000
USD 187,500-250,000
Sold Price
TWD 7,200,000
HKD 1,738,291
USD 223,117
Signature
ROVENANCE:
Collection of Liao Shu-chung, the forth son of the artist
This painting is to be sold with a certificate of authenticity and a picture of the artist's family.
+ OVERVIEW
What is most praised about Liao Chi-chun's paintings is his use of colors; art critics praised him as "the magician of colors". The artist said that his colors are deceivable, untrue to nature. However, it has no difference from overthrowing the "nature is the mentor" tradition of Chinese painters; he took up the aesthetic concepts from Fauvism and Expressionism. He willfully gave the scenery colors from his subjective point of view, and he harmonized, blended those colors together, and shaped the scenery freely at the same time, to achieve a joyful and cheerful feeling.
As for the use of colors and shapes, Liao Chi-chun had his own point of view, he once said: "I use simple, intense colors and the contrast to bring up more colors, in the mean time, I pay attention to the aesthetic delight between lines when shaping. It is not about my impressions in a specific time; it's simply about representing the colors that I wanted to represent." (Lin Hsing Yueh The Rainbow Across the Gap Between Generations - Liao Chi-chun's artistic life by Lin Hsing-yueh, Cathay Art Museum, Taipei, published on March, 1981, pp. 230 - 231)
In the 1960s when he returned from his visit to Europe and the United States, he was quite impressed with American abstract art and European civilization. Between the 1960s and 1970s, Liao Chi-chun's paintings reached their peak. In particular, the splendid scenery of Venice, the busy shuttles on the water and the free atmosphere for creation affected Liao so much that upon his return to Taiwan, he quickly found his own intuition. Fresh water, love, Venice, wild willows or East Port, the last leg of his life's journey, all these famous attractions of water takes on a lively outlook under his brush.
Created in 1974, this lot "Guanyin Mountain and Tamsui River" is one of his classics. Adopting a dotting technique, the color of the sky and the water floats smoothly, while fishing boats shuttle back and forth in bright colors. The layout of the vessels does not become messy because of the complexity of the colors. Instead, the freshness of the colors helps to extend the little fishing port to the skyline in the distance.
Modern & Contemporary Asian Art
Ravenel Spring Auction 2010 Taipei
Sunday, June 6, 2010, 2:30pm