Lot 12: Liu Ye (B. 1964) She is so Beautiful

Liu Ye (B. 1964)
She is so Beautiful
2000

signed in Chinese and Pinyin and dated 2000 on the lower right
acrylic on canvas

46 x 38 cm (18 1/8 × 14 15/16 in)
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Provenance
Sale: Poly International Auction Co., Ltd., Chinese Oil Paintings, 4 June 2006, Lot 00005Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
London, Chinese Contemporary Gallery, Liu Ye: Fellini, A Guardsman, Mondrian, The Pope and My Girlfriend, April 2001
Literature
Chinese Contemporary, Liu Ye: Fellini, A Guardsman, Mondrian, The Pope and My Girlfriend. exh. cat., London, 2001, p. 21, illustrated in colourHubei Fine Arts Publishing House, The First Triennial of Chinese Arts, China, 2002, p. 64, illustrated in colourChristoph Noe, Ed., Liu Ye Catalogue Raisonné 1991-2015, Berlin, 2015, p. 295, no. 00-13, illustrated in colour
劉野
她是如此美麗壓克力畫布2000年作
簽名：2000 野 Liu Ye（右下）
來源
拍賣：北京保利國際拍賣有限公司，「中國油畫」，2006年6月4日，拍品編號00005現藏家得自上述來源
展覽
「劉野：費里尼、衛兵、蒙德里安、教皇和我的女友」，倫敦中國當代藝術畫廊，2001年4月
出版
《「劉野：費里尼、衛兵、蒙德里安、教皇和我的女友」展覽圖錄》，中國當代藝術畫廊，倫敦，2001年，第21頁，彩圖《首屆中國藝術三年展》，湖北美術出版社，武漢，2002年，第64頁，彩圖《劉野作品全集1991-2015》，Christoph Noe編著，柏林，2015年，第295頁，00-13號，彩圖
She is so Beautiful is another work that exemplifies Liu Ye's tribute to the western masters through his masterful use of colour and space. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Liu Ye retained only the dramatic atmosphere from his practice and stripped away most of the other extraneous factors. As such, the format of his paintings has become more uncomplicated and absolute — the near-monotone background makes the figures more striking. Art critic Zhu Zhu explained that Liu Ye's succinct treatment of the background is a marriage between Mondrian's abstraction and the use of empty spaces in traditional Chinese painting. In She is so Beautiful, we witness a pivotal change in Liu Ye's artistic career — by enveloping the subject with a simple background, the picture is imbued with a sense of intimacy and peaceful quietude.
She is so Beautiful emanates a sense of mystique — poetic, balanced, and calm, its harmonious palette is reminiscent of the still life works by Giorgio Morandi. The relaxed and clean brushwork as well as the simple treatment of light and shadow position this work between a flat depiction and a three-dimensional rendering. Not only do the empty background and the reduced imagery filter out all temporal and spatial cues, but they also reject any direct narratives. The way that this work processes complex issues with ... For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website