PROVENANCE:

Collection of Liao Shu-chung, the forth son of the artist, USA

Collection of Ann Liao, the daughter of Liao Shu-chung, USA

Already one of the island's foremost oil painters during the Japanese era in Taiwan, Liao Chi-chun was an innovative and inventive artist whose style visibly matured over time, and who produced much of his best work in his later years. Some of his earlier work was shortlisted three times for the Teiten (Imperial Exhibition) and twice for the Shinbunten ("New Culture Exhibition"), as well as receiving many special awards at the Taiten (Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition).

During his studies at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1926, Liao was influenced by Impressionistic Academism and Post-Impressionist styles, in particular by the work of Japanese Fauvist Umehara Ryuzaburo (1888-1986). His experiences in Japan served as a catalyst for the creation of his own style, which would come to feature an expansive and free approach to color, form and composition. His early work shows a preoccupation with Taiwanese themes and landscapes, depicted in a relatively compact and straightforward fashion - which is not surprising if we consider his down-to-earth and rather introverted character. Even so, exaggerated and slightly distorted shapes are also part of his repertoire from early on, and while his colors are dense and powerful, they have a certain opaqueness about them that is reminiscent of Post-Impressionism and Expressionism.

Around 1956, Liao became actively involved in art education, introducing a growing number of students to the art of oil painting and becoming one of the leaders of a new trend towards abstract art in Taiwan. His compositions became increasingly simple and terse, stunning audiences with a newfound boldness. Soon Liao began to experiment with pink, dark green and soft blue pastel tones, which he applied with bold strokes for maximum intensity and vividness, adumbrating the gradual birth of his very own brand of Fauvism. After returning from a tour of Europe and the United States in 1962, during which he soaked up the latest trends in Western art, his strokes, palette and entire artistic language moved even further beyond the restrains of conventional painting, while at the same time abandoning abstractionism for a sort of semi-abstract approach. Most critics agree that Liao produced much of his best work in the years between his return to Taiwan in the early sixties and his death in 1976. And most of the artist's best-known monikers, such as "Fauvist Master of Splendid Harmonies" (Wang Hsiu-hsiung), "The Gentle Fauvist" (Chang Yung-tsun), or the title of the 2006 National Palace Museum Exhibition, "Magician of Colors," were bestowed mainly in recognition of Liao's achievements in his later years.

This lot, "Northeast Coast, Taiwan", was originally in the possession of the artist's fourth son, Liao Shu-chung, who spent much of his life in the United States, among other things teaching as a professor at the University of Michigan. Liao Shu-chung was also the original owner of the painting "Toledo in Spain", which is now part of the collection of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Liao Chi-chun was in the habit of giving many of his paintings - especially those he felt to represent his best work - to his sons and daughters, for which this lot is a good example: on the back of the painting one finds the words "For my dear son Shu-chung" written by the artist himself. Later, Liao Shu-chung gave the painting as a present to his daughter Ann.

This lot depicts the captivating beauty of Taiwan's northeast coast. As an island, Formosa is blessed with many famous scenic spots and superb panoramas along its coastline, some of which appear with particular frequency in the artist's later work, including Turtle Island off the Ilan coast, the natural wonders of Yehliu and the picturesque area of the Tamsui estuary (both not far from Taipei), or Tungkang in Pingtung County. The various promontories, rock formations and fascinating geological features lured Liao back time and again, and became motifs of many of his sketches and paintings, including "Canal", "Scenery in Yehliu", "Turtle Island", and the present lot.

"Northeast Coast, Taiwan" displays all the typical characteristics of the artist's late work: unpretentious style, vibrating colors, natural simplicity and warm nostalgia. Sky and sea are kept in harmonizing hues of pastel pink and blue, while a more variegated palette is reserved for the rugged coastline and outlying rocks. Together, the shades and tones employed are reminiscent of colorful temple festivals in rural Taiwan, adding considerably to the sense of unrestrained passion and powerful motion that pervades the whole composition. Art critic Wang Su-feng feels that the prevalence of pink tones in Liao Chi-chun's late work hints at the artist's genius: "Of course, the color pink symbolizes softness, gentleness, and lyricism, and by combining it with other bold and fresh tones, Liao creates a uniquely poetic atmosphere." No doubt, the spots and planes of pink or rose dappled among his landscapes perfectly express the artist's romanticism and young-at-heart view of the world.