FROM AN IMPORTANT ASIAN COLLECTION (LOTS 1302-1318)XU BEIHONG AND HIS FRIENDS IN ASIA: WORKS BY XU BEIHONG FROM AN IMPORTANT ASIAN COLLECTION By Professor Xu QingpingIn 1939 my father Xu Beihong left Guilin for Nanyang to raise funds for anti-Sino Japanese War activities. Over the next few years, he created over a thousand paintings and organized 36 selling exhibitions through which he donated all the proceeds to assist the orphans of deceased soldiers and displaced refugees. It is also during this period that Xu Beihong worked with both traditional Chinese ink and western oil media to create the masterpiece The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains that praised the unfailing spirit of the Chinese people. Xu believed that an artist should “use his ability to contribute to one’s country and fulfil one’s responsibility as a citizen.” We are extremely fortunate to see this display of Xu’s works, it is as if the patriotic artist relives in front of our eyes. Xu Beihong is renowned for his depiction of animals for they are true to their spirits. Under his brush, each animal demonstrates its unique temperament - the cow honest and down-to-earth, the horse shrewd and brave, the cat agile and watchful, and the rooster loyal and alert. Chinese literati painting prides itself in expressing sentiment through symbolism. Painters depict the “three friends” - pine tree, bamboo and plum blossoms to manifest their perseverance for they thrive in the harshness of winter. They paint a large rock or a strong branch to symbolise a long-lived spirit. However, if an artist blindly copies the symbols without truly understanding the underlying meaning, then his work merely emanates a constructed elegance but is in fact a mockery to one’s creativity. Xu Beihong fused together the Chinese philosophical concepts of morality (de) and benevolence (ren) as well as western teaching of the pursuit of universal truth and progress. His work sees a rich imagination that is characteristic of Romanticism. As such, Xu successfully transformed the sentiments and hidden meanings in Chinese poetry into metaphors personified in the protagonists of the paintings. Before the arrival of the Japanese army, Xu Beihong left Singapore to return to China on a ferry via Myanmar. Eighty years later, we are pleased to see that a large body of work that Xu created in his Southeast Asia journey has been kept intact under one single collection, allowing us to get a glimpse of Xu Beihong as an artist in that period, and the enduring greatness of his art. Note: The introductory notes in this collection were written by Professor Xu Qingping.

WANG SHAOLING (1909-1989)

Statue Square

Details

WANG SHAOLING (1909-1989)
Statue Square
Scroll, mounted and framed, watercolour on paper
26 x 35.4 cm. (10 ¼ x 13 7/8 in.)
Inscribed and signed, with one seal of the artist
Dated 1936
Further inscribed by the artist on the back

Further Details

XU BEIHONG’S JOURNEY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
From 1937 to the 1942, Xu Beihong left China and travelled to Southeast Asia and India. This collection celebrates Xu’s extraordinary journey, artistic achievements, and the friendships he developed in this important period. Xu’s friends supported his exhibitions, provided accommodation, as well as discussed art with him. Many works in the collection are dedicated to these individuals, and for works painted by other artists, dedicated to Xu Beihong himself.
Throughout his life Xu Beihong had in total visited Europe five or six times. At the end of 1938 and beginning of 1939, he travelled on Dutch cruise Van Heufze to Singapore via Hong Kong. During his stay in Hong Kong, he met with fellow artists Luis Chan (Chen Fushan), and Yee Bon (Yu Ben), and Wang Shaoling to exchange ideas on art and art theories.
Xu’s visit to India in 1939 is famously documented by his meeting with Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951), one of the key artists who developed modern Indian painting as well as a noted writer. This visit also inspired Xu Beihong to paint unconventional works, such as Portrait of Gandhi (Lot 1308) and the three stunning watercolour landscapes of Darjeeling (Lot 1309).

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Lot Essay

Wang Shaoling (Wong Siu Ling), a native of Taishan, Guangdong, was one of Hong Kong’s first generation artists. In 1913, he moved to Hong Kong and studied Western painting. In 1935, Wang and some Hong Kong artists such as Luis Chan joined the Hong Kong Arts Society where he met Xu Beihong. In 1937, together with Li Tiefu and Yee Bon, Wang went to visit Guilin with Xu Beihong. In 1938, with the encouragement of Xu Beihong, Wang left Hong Kong for the United States to further his studies in art at the California School of Fine Arts. He specialised in oil and watercolour painting.

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