Lot 89: Ai Xuan , Tibetan Girl oil on canvas

signed in Chinese and Pinyin and dated 2000.12 oil on canvas

39 by 35 in. 99 by 89 cm.

Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto
Acquired by the present owner directly from the above

An important realist painter who was trained as a teen at the middle school associated with the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Ai Xuan was born in Zhejiang Province in 1947. Ai often traveled to Chengdu, the base point from which he journeyed into Tibet, and there he created finely handled, realistic portraits of peasants living on mountainous plateaus. Ai's paintings characteristically depict the open spirit of people leading harsh lives in the challenging climate, with a special interest in portraits of women and children. Ai has been a well-recognized painter internationally since the 1980's, during which time his work was widely exhibited abroad.

The Tibetan Girl from 2000 (Lot 89) shows a beautiful, doe-eyed youth wearing a heavy, gray-brown shearling, and set against a background of snowy hills and sheep. Ai's sense of close detail, evidenced in the intensity of the girl's slightly quizzical expression and the particulars of her coat, communicates the rustic beauty of life in Tibet, despite the area's scarce resources. In an unusual modern detail, Ai has depicted several small spheres floating in space near the girl's neck, which at first seem to be a necklace. These mysterious shapes, seemingly incidental to the overall expression of the composition and yet prominently placed, may be a nod towards contemporary painting amidst the atavism represented by the Tibetan wilderness; and yet the mystical overtones of the curious spheres might equally suggest a world beyond time.

In the earlier Perhaps the Sky is Still Blue (1984, Lot 91), a youth sleeps slumped over a table placed in a corner of the room; beyond him to the left, a window illuminates the humble space. The boy's back is turned toward us, so we see only the back of his coat and his aggressively tousled hair. More of a still life than a portrait, the picture as a whole is a study in contrasts and forms: an abstract, curvilinear expanse of white snow outside against the rigid lines and perspectival plunge indoors; the unruly hair and heavily textured coat against the smooth expanse of worn bench, table top, and precisely drawn window frame; the play of light and shadow animating the space as the boy peacefully slumbers. Indeed, the gentle illumination with which the scene is infused is as much the subject of the work as the boy himself or other tangible components. Ai's work demonstrates a subtle mastery of technique, and he is a leading exemplar of the continuing interest in representational oil painting amongst contemporary Chinese artists.