PROVENANCE:
Heritage Auction of T’ANG Haywen, Drouot, Paris

In the 1980s, T’ang Haywen moved away from the thick, heavy brushstrokes that had characterized his earlier work towards flowing, mist-like brushwork that gave him greater freedom when creating abstract works. These paintings posses a free, untrammeled spirituality; the brushstrokes seems to flow over the paper like the semi-cursive script in traditional Chinese calligraphy, sometimes latent with hidden force and power, and sometimes light and rhythmic. The combination of light and dark strokes builds a constellation of stars, an entire universe. T’ang Haywen never obsessed about creating “beautiful” paintings, and never put his emotions on display in his work just for the sake of it. And yet, through his effective utilization of blank space and of the contrast between light and dark shades, he succeeded in achieving a sublime balance that is without question “beautiful.” A handful of dark strokes “falling” down the canvas resemble a waterfall, which somehow also seems to spread outward from its center in a whirling of spray. The painting moves from the full to the empty, and from dark to light, with each of them reinforcing and complementing the other. The absence of any sense of conflict or tension gives these paintings a pronounced feeling of peace and harmony. In these later works, the simplicity and freedom from material desires that T’ang Haywen had cultivated in himself is clear for all to see. T’ang refrained from excessively abstract representation, and did not use gorgeous, brilliant colors; instead, he chose to express his artistic vision through the medium of inkbrush painting. In these paintings, T’ang was not seeking to show off his artistic skill, he was simply painting as his heart directed him to. His mastery of both Chinese and Western artistic techniques, along with extensive exposure to both cultures, enabled T’ang to achieve a superb fusion of Chinese calligraphy and ink-brush painting with Western abstract art. In these quiet, elegant paintings, we can perceive something of the Taoist cosmology and attitude to life that T’ang had adopted, with its emphasis on returning to nature and on non-action. T’ang’s success in integrating this philosophy into his paintings takes the quality of his art to an even higher plane of excellence.