Lot Essay
US$258,100-387,100
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Details
LI KERAN (1907-1989)
Families in the Mountains
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper
69 x 46.5 cm. (27 1/8 x 18 1/4 in.)
Entitled, inscribed and signed, with four seals of the artist
Dated autumn, ninth month, bingyin year (1986)
Li mentioned that "Objective observation and the pursuit of knowledge is limitless, which is why I invited Tang Yun to make me the seal 'white-haired student', for I feel that I am still a primary school student in regard to the study of Chinese paintings." In 1986, Li also said "Today I am nearly eighty years old, but I have never been satisfied with my works. I often wish I could live to a hundred years old. However, I know it will not work even if I could be two hundred years old. It will be only a little better than now the development of things is boundless and absolute perfection can never be achieved."
In light of Li's humble opinion of his success, it is not surprising that he was the most hard-working artist, in order to bring about a new mode in landscape painting. In an exhibition he once mentioned; "If my work has any value, it would be in my deep study of tradition, along with sketches, and execution of my thoughts. Man cannot create when he departs from nature and tradition." Creating through nature was Li's way to successfully fuse old and new, and his works do not 'compete with the camera', for though they originate in nature, they have risen above and been transformed into something completely new.
Families in the Mountains
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper
69 x 46.5 cm. (27 1/8 x 18 1/4 in.)
Entitled, inscribed and signed, with four seals of the artist
Dated autumn, ninth month, bingyin year (1986)
Li mentioned that "Objective observation and the pursuit of knowledge is limitless, which is why I invited Tang Yun to make me the seal 'white-haired student', for I feel that I am still a primary school student in regard to the study of Chinese paintings." In 1986, Li also said "Today I am nearly eighty years old, but I have never been satisfied with my works. I often wish I could live to a hundred years old. However, I know it will not work even if I could be two hundred years old. It will be only a little better than now the development of things is boundless and absolute perfection can never be achieved."
In light of Li's humble opinion of his success, it is not surprising that he was the most hard-working artist, in order to bring about a new mode in landscape painting. In an exhibition he once mentioned; "If my work has any value, it would be in my deep study of tradition, along with sketches, and execution of my thoughts. Man cannot create when he departs from nature and tradition." Creating through nature was Li's way to successfully fuse old and new, and his works do not 'compete with the camera', for though they originate in nature, they have risen above and been transformed into something completely new.
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