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CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART

The following five lots by artists Wu Yi, Ge Guanzhong, Xu Lei, Miao Xiaochun and Chen Ke range from beautiful, detailed contemporary ink works to sculptural digital paintings. Born in the 1960s and 1970s, these artists exhibit a deep and nuanced knowledge of both Chinese and European art history, often marrying the two in their work to create an innovative artistic vocabulary. While Wu Yi, Ge... CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART

The following five lots by artists Wu Yi, Ge Guanzhong, Xu Lei, Miao Xiaochun and Chen Ke range from beautiful, detailed contemporary ink works to sculptural digital paintings. Born in the 1960s and 1970s, these artists exhibit a deep and nuanced knowledge of both Chinese and European art history, often marrying the two in their work to create an innovative artistic vocabulary. While Wu Yi, Ge Guanzhong, and Xu Lei experiment with traditional Chinese styles, techniques and even myths and narratives (lots 60 - 62), Chen Ke and Miao Xiaochun reference Renaissance murals, placing them within current sociopolitical contexts (lot 63 and 64).

Beijing-based Chen Ke is a Chinese contemporary artist best known for her unique style inspired strongly by the Chinese comics, fables and European fairy tales of her childhood. She has experimented with a variety of media including painting, sculpture and fashion design, even using unlikely surfaces such as furniture, fabric and marble for her works. Born in 1978 in Tongjiang, she belongs to what is sometimes referred to as the Post 70s Ego Generation in Chinese art - artists who explore the self and individual in their practice, impacted directly by China's One Child Policy and growing up as only children. In an interview with British art critic Karen Smith, Chen Ke said, "When I was small I was always by myself, entertaining myself. Later on, I found I was used to being alone. This has influenced an entire generation of Chinese people." (Quoted in "Karen Smith Interviews Chen Ke," artintern.net, 2008, online)

Primarily autobiographical, Chen Ke's works depict the inner life of her characters and the human condition. Her cartoon-like, innocent faux naif works, which often featured a young girl experiencing the challenges of growing up, have recently given way to a more mature, softer style where difficult emotions including sorrow, loneliness, frustration, and pain are expressed through vast, dreamlike landscapes. Many of these works created in 2009-10, including the present lot, are in the circular format reminiscent of timeless classical paintings, and the round canvas also suggests "a peep hole by which the viewer can look into and see the world of one's mind." (Artist quoted in Carol Yinghua Lu, "Untitled - On Chen Ke's Practice," Christoph Noe and Cordelia Noe eds., Chen Ke, Heidelberg: Kehrer Verlag, 2016, p. 23, online)

In these works, likely created for the 2010 exhibition Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World - titled after the novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami - Chen Ke synthesises the medium with the subject matter by manipulating the surface of the painting. The resulting textural effect resembles foam-like pores and crevasses, signifying the passage of time. "This new technique is inspired by viewing once colorful and now faded murals where images are no longer clear. Traces of time become markers that reinforces its appeal." (Noe and Noe eds., p. 24)

In a 2009 essay, curator and critic Li Xu writes, "The indirect influence of the exquisite beauty of Chinese Song Dynasty paintings, early Italian Renaissance religious paintings and the 17th century Dutch still life tradition can all be seen to different degrees in her recent work." ("The Starting Point of Dreams," Noe and Noe eds., p. 19, online) This awareness of traditional art and art history informs Chen Ke's soul-searching spiritual journey in creating works that are unquestionably her own. The present lot depicts a lighthouse on a rocky, snow-covered shore facing an expansive calm sea, perhaps symbolising the need to find peace within isolation and alienation.

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