Lot 562: WANG HUAIQING

WANG HUAIQING
(Born in 1944)
Traces of Nature IV
signed, titled and inscribed 'Wang Huaiqing; tripytch; Traces of Nature IV' in Chinese (middle right & on reverse)
oil on canvas tripytch
200 x 120 cm. (78 3/4 x 47 1/4 in.) x 3 pieces
total dimensions: 200 x 360 cm. (78 3/4 x 141 3/4 in.)
Painted in 2004

Hong Kong, China, Yan Gallery, Wang Huaiqing - Traces of Nature, 2005.

Yan Gallery, Wang Huaiqing - Traces of Nature, Hong Kong, China, 2005, pp. 26-27. (illustrated)

Private Collection, Taiwan

Having been educated at the Fine Arts, Central Industrial Art Institute, Wang Huaiqing was student to many famous artists, such as Wu Guanzhong, Zhang Ding and Zhu Danian. Wang once said, "An artist may use his whole life seeking ego and searching for explanations about art, just like there is always something hidden and cannot be found, the artist is somewhat bitter, for he is a lifelong seeker." It is because of this persistence in seeking new things that has enabled Wang to create an art entirely of his own. Furthermore, Wu Guanzhong praised him as: "the new bamboo that has grown higher than the older one",
During the 1950's Wang spent two years visiting the United States. Wang saw and experienced both the development of Externalism and Modern Abstract Performing arts, and by comparing Western philosophies of art, he gained a deeper understanding of Chinese art which. Externalism gives up the external shape and form of an object, and returns the key points of art to the abstract work of colors, lines, and points, stimulating the viewers and allowing for infinite imagination. Wang sees this similar to the combination of Zen and art in China. Four monk artists in the end of Ming Dynasty, Jian Jiang, Shi Tao, Ba Da Shan Ren, and Shi Yu challenged Chinese traditional landscape painting, instead combining it with Zen notions, put emphasized ideas of 'plain' and 'desolate, dispersing, simple, far'. Referring to the simplicity of composition and image to display the painting's spirituality. Such a concept is similar to the Western artist Soulage's "the simpler the method, the stronger the performance" .

Wu Guanzhong once described his student Wang Huaiqing as one with "a heart of Shi Tao". From Traces of Nature IV (Lot 562), one see's how Shi Tao's thought has illuminated Wang's drawing. Light and soft lines dominate the painting. The use of line is so important in Chinese art, as it can help artist to express their inner feelings silently.

Traces of Nature IV applied abstract composition, and used lines to divide the picture. The lines expressed horizontally and vertically form rivets similar to that in Chinese traditional hard wooden furniture and the architecture structures. The lines in the drawing reflect the artist's feeling and thinking. Based on Wang's sketch drawings, we can find our artist was at ease before further stepping into more serious elaboration. Traces of Nature IV is Wang's exploration of ancient culture of China, inspired. by the special architecture of Black tiles and white walls in Jiangnan. In his eye, architecture elements in ancient Jiangnan, the dark heavy pillars and heavy crossbeams formed a great abstract painting where he found immortality within. Wang's creation aroused poetic ambience full of traditional wisdom and romantic lyricism. The combination of Chinese traditional hard wooden furniture and architecture structures provided him with infinite inspiration, thus began his creation based on furniture structures.

The contrast of black and white was also an important factor in Traces of Nature IV. Wang Huaiqing said: "In my eyes, the black and white is colorful." Black and white is commonly used in the color composition of his drawings. Black and white, as the main color of Chinese traditional ink drawings, form a special "Ink Culture" in China. Wang created his oil paintings different tothe western paintings, inserting a Chinese spirit into his painting and making it his own. Black oil color with white lines covered his drawings with little embellishment. Wang absorbed Chinese philosopher Laozi's thought "With or without, create together". His drawings can be viewed as a visual form, and can also be viewed as visual-less images, giving viewers infinite space to think.

Traces of Nature IV not only includ Chinese traditional philosophy thought, but praises China's wisdom. Traces of Nature IV was named after "Yi Xi Ci", "Tian Gong Ren Qi Hua Zhi" and "Kai Wu Cheng Wu, a Chinese ancient encyclopedia written in 10th year of the Ming Emperor Chong Zhen. It introduced the manufacturing process of salt, sugar and wine, and recorded all sorts of practical knowledge. This deep understanding about the traditional Chinese culture makes Wang's art imbued with Eastern flavour.

Mr. Jia, Fangzhou, a famous art critic, made a conclusion in The Spirit in Black and White Column-Discussion on Huairou Wang's Modern Architectural Structure: "From Pan Tianshou, Lin Fengmian, Wu Guanzhong and Wang Huaiqing, the idea of architectural structure is more and more clear." If we view the first three artists as exploiters in oriental architectural structure, then Wang's achievements is in his unusual method of forgoing color. Pure black and white better expresses an artist's strong desires, and harks back to Soulage's idea of the simpler the method, the stronger the performance.