.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Wang Guangle is one of the most prominent Chinese artists born in the 1970s. Afternoon No. 8 was completed two years after his graduation. In 2000 the artist received the Charles Wang Scholarship from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) with five paintings in the theme of light. The visual sense of Afternoon No. 8 demonstrates a literary style calling attention to the experience of reading a novel or watching a movie - awakening the reminiscence of a certain fragment of life. The light of a specific period of time loiters on a moment; the splendor of old times flows like water.
Exhibited in the Third Exhibition of Chinese Oil Painting in 2003, Afternoon No. 8 portrays a corner in an ordinary interior with the visual presentation of a close shot. A puddle of water implies events that may have previously taken place. A line of white light shines diagonally that dissects the entire surface in a naked yet almost unrealistic manner.
In the process of executing Afternoon No. 8, Wang Guangle spent a month scrutinising a terrazzo floor. To delineate the beam of light, on the other hand, took him only an afternoon. For the artist, this painting exposes two different temporal spaces: that of the beam of light on a specific sunny afternoon, and the empirical time experienced by the artist when he illustrated the dense terrazzo. Wang demonstrates a creative process sharing certain attributes with Zen, which inspires his later process-based practice and catalyzes his renowned series of terrazzo paintings, where concept is interwoven with a spirituality transcending realist painting. Afternoon No. 8 ensures its significance by inheriting the past and inaugurating the future of Wang Guangle's artistic trajectory.
Exhibited in the Third Exhibition of Chinese Oil Painting in 2003, Afternoon No. 8 portrays a corner in an ordinary interior with the visual presentation of a close shot. A puddle of water implies events that may have previously taken place. A line of white light shines diagonally that dissects the entire surface in a naked yet almost unrealistic manner.
In the process of executing Afternoon No. 8, Wang Guangle spent a month scrutinising a terrazzo floor. To delineate the beam of light, on the other hand, took him only an afternoon. For the artist, this painting exposes two different temporal spaces: that of the beam of light on a specific sunny afternoon, and the empirical time experienced by the artist when he illustrated the dense terrazzo. Wang demonstrates a creative process sharing certain attributes with Zen, which inspires his later process-based practice and catalyzes his renowned series of terrazzo paintings, where concept is interwoven with a spirituality transcending realist painting. Afternoon No. 8 ensures its significance by inheriting the past and inaugurating the future of Wang Guangle's artistic trajectory.