Lot 1051: AI XUAN

AI XUAN
(B. 1947)
Tibetan Girl
signed in Chinese; signed 'Ai Xuan' in Pinyin (lower right)
oil on canvas
88 x 88 cm. (34 5/8 x 34 5/8 in.)

Private Collection, Asia

Having begun his art training at the Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts Preparatory School in 1963, Ai Xuan's formal training was interrupted when the Cultural Revolution began shortly before his graduation in 1967. Soldier (Lot 1168) is a rare and fine example of an earlier work done by the artist in 1974 during his time stationed in Chengdu Military Zone as an artist to the army. The confidence and ambition captured in the eyes of the young soldier depicted also reflect the similar mood in the young artist, and this method of conveying complex emotions within a glance would continue throughout the artist's later works.

Since 1983, Ai Xuan's creative concept has shifted from depicting peasant life to the remote Tibetan Highlands. The misty snow scenes, sequestered cottages, and the innocent faces of the girls become the subjects for expressing the artist's inner world.
The defined expressiveness found in the sketch Village Girl(Lot 1051) offers a glimpse into the technical skills of naturalistic rendering and rich textural details behind the artist brush. It is this type of first-hand, direct observation of his subjects and the pure emotions captured in them that Ai Xuan tries to recreate on his canvases.

Ai Xuan recalls his first experience in Tibet in 1973 and the profound feeling of unity in heaven, earth and human life that he felt in the expanse of the remote highlands. The tranquil silence of the snowy wilderness assaulted him with a sudden shock of primeval simplicity and loneliness that brought to mind a type of pre-historic beginnings of life itself, somewhere where time seems to have frozen still. In Tibetan Girl (Lot 1051), Ai Xuan captures the innocence, solitude and mystery behind the young girl's life in the icy cold terrain. Accompanied by her wandering dog and the vast wilderness, her eyes and expression slightly tinged with sadness evokes the empathy of the audience. Meticulously rendered in rich, textured brushwork, the carefully-arranged and emotionally-evoking composition emphasizes on an abstracted simplicity to express the passionate and complex sentiments of his subjects.

In a more recent work, Winter (Lot 1052) similarly accentuates the distance between the subject and the viewer, as the girl in the image looks away into the eternal horizon of empty, icy grounds. Ai Xuan said of his work, "I try to express a very complicated feeling...my paintings aren't simple representations of Tibetan life...I'm expressing my own feelings and my own sense of destiny." His close relationship to the people and landscapes of the region shows through his poetic images. As his works continue to evolve, Ai Xuan remains steadfast in his exploration of the vitality meaning and value of life, and his paintings continue to be symbolic of the human condition and spiritual fulfillment itself.