PRINTPROVENANCE:
Sotheby's Auction, Taipei, 19 April, 1998, lot 100
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Sotheby's Auction, Taipei, 19 April, 1998, lot 100
Acquired from the above by the present owner
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Wild Chrysanthemum in a Jar
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1961 Ink and color on paper 64.5 x 54 cm Signed upper left Yu Liang in Chinese, dated 61 |
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Estimate
9,000,000 - 16,000,000 2,222,000 - 3,951,000 286,300 - 508,900
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Sold Price
9,600,000 2,412,060 311,183
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Catalogue Note:
Being one of the first ethnic Chinese artists who traveled to Europe to study Western art, Pan Yu-liang succeeded in fusing the essential elements of Chinese and Western art and developed a personal style that reflected the spirit of the times in which she lived, and which combined wild exuberance with attention to detail and emotional subtlety. Pan enjoyed a very high reputation as an artist, not only in France (where she lived for over 30 years) but in the Chinese-speaking world. Her fearless, indomitable spirit enabled her to overcome every difficulty and write a glorious page in the history of art, becoming a legend in her own lifetime.
Pan Yu-liang was influenced by the Impressionists and the Fauvists. Her use of color was bold and strikingly beautiful, and she successfully integrated deformative techniques into figurative representation. Pan also incorporated the lines and rhythm of traditional Chinese ink and wash painting into her art; the precise balance of hard and soft lines in her work won her the accolade of being called “Iron-line Yu-liang” in Chinese. From 1942 onwards, Pan focused on experimenting with ink and color on paper, working to integrate the Western art tradition’s use of color, perspective, light and shadow, and three-dimensionality, with East Asian ink and wash painting, creating a series of works that embody passionate emotion and leave the viewer feeling intensely moved. The 1961 painting “Wild Chrysanthemums in a Jar” dates from the period in which Pan Yu-liang had already brought her ink and color on paper work to a high level of maturity. Pan loved chrysanthemums, admiring them for their tenacity, and also for their symbolic association with her homeland, China. In this work, Pan had used the “boneless” technique from ink and wash painting (which involves painting without the use of an outline) to portray the fresh softness of the chrysanthemums. The serried layers of petals have a sublime beauty, while the stalks and leaves emanate vigor and the vitality of wild nature. The wild chrysanthemums are shown placed inside a blue jar, the outline of which, and the crackle effect on its surface, are depicted in exquisite detail with flowing strokes of the ink brush, so that the restrained elegance of the jar somehow also exudes a warm, entrancing luster. When painting flowers and vases, Pan Yu-liang tended not to give them a specific background, and she had followed this habit in “Wild Chrysanthemums in a Jar.” The space around the jar is lightly spattered with blue and red dots, reflecting the colors of the chrysanthemum petals and of the jar itself, and tiny rings and dots of black ink have been applied as well, which gradually thin out as they get further from the jar, elegantly creating a sense of space and depth, and giving the painting a dreamlike feeling of detachment.
Pan Yu-liang was influenced by the Impressionists and the Fauvists. Her use of color was bold and strikingly beautiful, and she successfully integrated deformative techniques into figurative representation. Pan also incorporated the lines and rhythm of traditional Chinese ink and wash painting into her art; the precise balance of hard and soft lines in her work won her the accolade of being called “Iron-line Yu-liang” in Chinese. From 1942 onwards, Pan focused on experimenting with ink and color on paper, working to integrate the Western art tradition’s use of color, perspective, light and shadow, and three-dimensionality, with East Asian ink and wash painting, creating a series of works that embody passionate emotion and leave the viewer feeling intensely moved. The 1961 painting “Wild Chrysanthemums in a Jar” dates from the period in which Pan Yu-liang had already brought her ink and color on paper work to a high level of maturity. Pan loved chrysanthemums, admiring them for their tenacity, and also for their symbolic association with her homeland, China. In this work, Pan had used the “boneless” technique from ink and wash painting (which involves painting without the use of an outline) to portray the fresh softness of the chrysanthemums. The serried layers of petals have a sublime beauty, while the stalks and leaves emanate vigor and the vitality of wild nature. The wild chrysanthemums are shown placed inside a blue jar, the outline of which, and the crackle effect on its surface, are depicted in exquisite detail with flowing strokes of the ink brush, so that the restrained elegance of the jar somehow also exudes a warm, entrancing luster. When painting flowers and vases, Pan Yu-liang tended not to give them a specific background, and she had followed this habit in “Wild Chrysanthemums in a Jar.” The space around the jar is lightly spattered with blue and red dots, reflecting the colors of the chrysanthemum petals and of the jar itself, and tiny rings and dots of black ink have been applied as well, which gradually thin out as they get further from the jar, elegantly creating a sense of space and depth, and giving the painting a dreamlike feeling of detachment.