Lot 1427: QIU YACAI

QIU YACAI
(CH'IU YA-TS'AI, B. 1949)
Post of a Poet
signed in Chinese (lower left)
oil on canvas
130.5 x 97 cm. (51 3/8 x 38 3/16 in.)
Painted in the 1990s

Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong, China
Acquired from the above by the present owner

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED EUROPEAN COLLECTION

A silent observer of contemporary urban dwellers, Qiu Yacai's world of portraiture reveals his genuine concern for portraying the ideal portrait and the complexities of human nature. His subjects, typified by the elegant scholar, translate into a contemporary equation of the privileged intellectual class, to which Qiu, a novelist and painter, also associates himself with. As such, we may very well see glimpses of Qiu's reflection of his own spirit and character in the solitary figures he depicts. Post of a Poet (Lot 1427) epitomizes the contemporary scholar; his moral rectitude, elegance, and search for perfection summarize the ideals of nobility and refinement of a Confucian fellow. Qiu renders his subject with expressive brushstrokes and cool colours to capture the tension and psychology behind the mask-like face that stares engagingly at the viewer. The distant and slightly melancholic gaze of the man alludes to unspoken emotions that plague thinkers and creators alike, but his dignified stance is wholly monumentalized and glorified in this large format portraiture which reassures his deeply personal pursuits in artistic creation.

Portrait of a Man (Lot 1429) depicts a symphony of inky blue tones delineated in flat blocks, and elongated forms that remind of Amedeo Modigliani's works. However, Qiu's influences are indeed broader, and the continuous strokes of black or blue ink that render the sleek silhouette of the stooping man reveal Qiu's passion for Chinese painting and calligraphy. Further reflecting his influences rooted in classical Chinese artistic culture, Qiu adopts a trait borrowed from the Eastern Jin artist Gu Kaizhi, in which the detached character reveals true feelings and personality only through the strongly marked eyes to depict the solitude and resolve of the man.

The figure in Androgynous Youth (Lot 1428), rendered in steady and free handling of the brush that is reminiscent of the traditional gongbi or meticulous style painting, appears elegant yet frail; however, still controlled and self-possessed at the same time. In portraying the formal profile view of the figure's bust, the unadorned beauty and smooth skin of the youth strikes in its purity and sensuality against the red background. This duality in character of fragility and dignity embodies the paradoxes of humankind beneath the surface and its ability to evoke glimpses of the inner psyche of the figures he paints.