ILLUSTRATED:
Liu Ye: Red Yellow Blue, Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong, 2004, color illustrated, pp. 40-41
PROVENANCE:
Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong
Private collection, Europe

Liu Ye’s palette of playful primary colors and geometrically clean compositions have propelled the artist to the forefront of the international art scene, captivating audiences globally with the indelible appeal of his flawless aesthetic. Vivid yet balanced colors resonate across his canvases, as his innocent child subjects exude emotions all the more potent in their subtlety. With an academic background rooted in industrial design, Liu’s work blends an impressive amalgamation of Classicism, Formalism, and Surrealism to create serene scenes saturated with tension and concentrated emotion.

Having spent the majority of his early career in Europe, Liu Ye formed an eager attachment to masters of Western artistic tradition, taking particular inspiration from Dutch painter Vermeer and abstractionist Mondrian. Liu refers to his academic background in industrial design as a study in “strictly controlled passion,” and it is this same concept of artistic zeal combined with a rigid and detailed structural format that drew Liu to these two Dutch artists. From Vermeer, Liu appropriated a theatrical use of light from an off-scene source, providing high contrasts and dramatic shadows. “Vermeer is not only good at humans, or painting reality,” Liu states, “Everything in his work is beautiful.” Employing this same technique, Liu accentuates the element of fantasy inherent in his works, as well as the heightened emotions of his subjects.

These explorations in light and shade complement Liu’s perpendicular compositional structure, influenced directly by his affection for Mondrian. “Mondrian’s elements appear in my paintings as spiritual symbols,” explains Liu, “His paintings are so simply pure: only the basic colors and vertical and horizontal lines. I’d also like to solve the problem of simplicity.” By creating simplified horizons with small vertical figures awash in expanses of primary blocks of color, Liu recalls the restrained and regulated structure of Mondrian’s abstractions within his own figurative paintings. Liu reflects his admiration of Mondrian’s simplicity and elegance in the abstract not only by echoing the structural formality, but also by incorporating images of Mondrian’s paintings within his own artworks. By appropriating aesthetic elements, allusions, and direct references to recognizable works within the Western art historical tradition, Liu Ye allows himself to enter into that same lineage, and place himself among his idols.

While acknowledging the formal influences of European artists, Liu also succeeds in transforming these aesthetics to establish an iconic artistic style by employing these adopted techniques to depict his own unique child subjects. A children’s book author during the Cultural Revolution, Liu’s father encouraged his son to immerse himself in the fantastical worlds and adventures of these tales. With enlarged heads and miniature bodies, Liu’s children evoke all the innocence of their cartoon-like appearances, often contrasting with their more adult exploits. Each small figure both commands and rebels against the overwhelming expanse in which they are placed, inhabiting the space with forlorn determination. “Every artist might be looking for images appropriate for their inner expressions,” Liu explains, “such as Yue Minjun’s smiling faces and Zhou Tiehai’s camels. For me, it’s just these small people.” Liu continues to play on the childlike simplicity of his subjects with his use of bright primary colors, while at the same time staging his figures within stark, perpendicular scenes, the minimal lines enhancing the sense of spacious abandonment.

A set of three, Red, Yellow, Blue exemplifies Liu Ye’s utilization of theatrical lighting, appropriation of art historical images, perpendicular composition, and child protagonists. Atypical on the market, Red, Yellow, Blue is a matchless and valuable three-canvas construction rarely presented at auction. Taking clear inspiration from children’s book illustration, each of the three canvases tells its own individual story, while also combining to establish a broader, more complex narrative. While using subjects and a structure found throughout the artist’s body of work, the present lot offers an exceptional composition and construction, singular in its quality and distinctive for its narrative carried across the three canvases. In Red, a small round-headed girl stands in profile against two thin-lined paintings by Mondrian. Each Mondrian painting used across these three canvases refers to an actual piece created by the Dutch abstractionist. The narrow linear patterns accentuate the vast, open space of the composition and emphasize the miniature stature of the eyeless figure. Standing straight, with feet firmly planted and shoulders squared, the figure herself reflects the vertical lines of the paintings behind her, while a firmly held blade forms a right angle with her upright form. Further extending this horizontal line, the stark lighting throws the girl’s shadow along the length of the floor, drawing the viewer’s gaze across the breadth of the canvas, following the girl’s blind yet poignant line of sight into the next vignette. Illuminating the central panel, Yellow presents a brightly lit scene, and two additional works by Mondrian. With her elongated shadow stretched horizontally behind her, the young girl in Yellow stands again in profile, with an outstretched arm pointing an accusatory finger, extending an invisible link across the canvas borders. Each line reflecting the perpendicular structure of the paintings behind her, the girl presents a unifying element joining the series together. In Blue, a similarly coiffed girl turns reflectively away, bathed in striking yet solemn cerulean tones. Two final Mondrian paintings adorn the darkened wall. Against the overwhelming wash of blue, the paintings’ brilliant yellow rectangles shine in stark contrast to their surroundings, creating a striking visual connection to the previous canvas. With this small, solitary subject, Liu has established an intensely engaging yet minimal composition rife with emotional complexity. An exceptional example of Liu Ye’s mastery of color, line, and ability to capture and convey sensational depth, Red, Yellow, Blue offers a singular opportunity in the current art market.
Liu’s simplicity and choice of child subjects amplifies the concentrated emotions which saturate his work. For Liu, this choice of diminutive protagonists reflects the passion and ardor of youth, sensations which the artist believes are dulled by maturity and the passage of time. “Sometimes,” claims the artist, “I’m really afraid of growing up. For me, the most beautiful time was before, with my family, my father and mother and sister…I’m a little bit afraid to become an adult, join the adult world.” Liu’s paintings preserve the intensity of youthful emotion, laid bare by the simplicity of composition.