PRINTEXHIBITED:
As Free As a Bird , Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, April 5 - 19, 2008
ILLUSTRATED:
Ye Yongqing – A Journey of Art , Anna Ning Fine Art, Hong Kong, 2008, color illustrated
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Bird
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2007 Acrylic on canvas 200 x 150 cm Signed lower center Ye Yongqing in Chinese and |
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Estimate
460,000 - 700,000 1,862,000 - 2,834,000 59,300 - 90,300
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EXHIBITED:
As Free As a Bird , Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, April 5 - 19, 2008
ILLUSTRATED:
Ye Yongqing – A Journey of Art , Anna Ning Fine Art, Hong Kong, 2008, color illustrated
Catalogue Note:
The high prices hit on the art market by Ye Yongqing's sketch-like bird paintings have, in recent years, led to intense discussions on the Internet, with heated arguments as to what constitutes a good resemblance, and what kind of art has real value. Ye Yongqing maintained that painting is primarily a form of spiritual cultivation.
This series of paintings originated from Ye's bird sketches. As Ye explained it, the sketches constituted a kind of diary for him, recording his fragmented, chaotic life; for him, they played a role like that of social media plays today. Ye could usually finish one of these sketches within a minute, keeping them as simple as a child's rough drawing; however, he then spent considerable time on the process of transforming the sketches into paintings. When creating the paintings, Ye kept things very basic, using the same kind of materials that an amateur artist might use: a woman's cosmetic eyebrow pencil, and an ink bottle filled with a mixture of water and propylene. Using the most conventional and ordinary of techniques, Ye was able to create some distinctively unconventional lines and shapes.
Ye Yongqing has a great passion for the court painting style of the Song Dynasty, which integrated painting, calligraphy and poetry into a unified whole. In that era, dominated by the great painter Huang Quan and his son Huang Jucai, birds symbolized nobility and elegance. However, as depicted by Ye Yongqing, all birds are "ugly birds." They are unattractive birds; sometimes, Ye depicts only the bird's head or its rear. In these paintings, Ye has approached the traditional image of birds ironically, seeking to turn convention on its head. Nevertheless, although these birds are divorced from the stereotypical presentation of birds in traditional literati painting, they are still depicted in a very "literature" way; what seems to be random at first glance is actually very carefully structured, and the overall effect is highly decorative.
This series of paintings originated from Ye's bird sketches. As Ye explained it, the sketches constituted a kind of diary for him, recording his fragmented, chaotic life; for him, they played a role like that of social media plays today. Ye could usually finish one of these sketches within a minute, keeping them as simple as a child's rough drawing; however, he then spent considerable time on the process of transforming the sketches into paintings. When creating the paintings, Ye kept things very basic, using the same kind of materials that an amateur artist might use: a woman's cosmetic eyebrow pencil, and an ink bottle filled with a mixture of water and propylene. Using the most conventional and ordinary of techniques, Ye was able to create some distinctively unconventional lines and shapes.
Ye Yongqing has a great passion for the court painting style of the Song Dynasty, which integrated painting, calligraphy and poetry into a unified whole. In that era, dominated by the great painter Huang Quan and his son Huang Jucai, birds symbolized nobility and elegance. However, as depicted by Ye Yongqing, all birds are "ugly birds." They are unattractive birds; sometimes, Ye depicts only the bird's head or its rear. In these paintings, Ye has approached the traditional image of birds ironically, seeking to turn convention on its head. Nevertheless, although these birds are divorced from the stereotypical presentation of birds in traditional literati painting, they are still depicted in a very "literature" way; what seems to be random at first glance is actually very carefully structured, and the overall effect is highly decorative.