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Lot Essay
“The highest ideal for Chinese culture is to commune with Heaven. If we take this as the goal of painting, the chance effects of ‘semi-automatic’ techniques may be looked upon as the natural effects that provide the ground for the artist’s imaginative elaboration. The spirited rhythm resulting from this approach is what the masters aspire to, and it is what we now aspire to.” – Liu Kuo-sung
FIFTH MOON GROUP & AND TON FAN ART GROUP
Fifth Moon Group and Ton Fan Art Group were two art groups from Taiwan that became popular in the mid-1950s, and their ranks were filled by young artists who were born prior to the Second World War and grew up during the war. Most of them received systematic artistic training – Fifth Moon Group's ranks had many graduates from the Art Department at National Taiwan Normal University, such as Liu Kuo-sung, Chuang Che, Chen Ting-Shih, Fong Chung- Ray; Ton Fan Art Group was founded by Li Chun-Shan and was filled with students from his studio such as Hsiao Chin, Li Yuan-Chia, Hsia Yan, Chu Wei-Bor and Ho Kang. Both art groups focused on the "modernization movement of Chinese modern art", which affirms the importance of traditional Chinese painting concepts while seeking ever-bolder expressions and techniques. They made deft use of oil paint, ink wash, sculpture, printmaking, and other mediums from the East and the West to add contemporary twists to Abstract art. Their innovations quickly received praise from the international art world - in the late 1950s and 1960s when the market for modern art was still nascent in Asia, both groups had already boasted members in the top art exhibition Sao Paulo Art Biennial, marking Asia's entry into the world stage and an important milestone of the age.
Born in 1932, Liu Kuo-sung was a founding member of Fifth Moon Group, and also a pioneering figure in the movement to reinvent Chinese ink wash paintings. He took it upon himself to experiment with ink wash and redefined the techniques, brushstrokes, and use of paper in Chinese paintings, using his own methods such as geometric collage, tearing, and paper marbling to thoroughly modernise ink wash paintings. In the late 1960s, he was inspired by the Apollo Mission's moon landing and created his Space Series of works, exploring the universe through his brushstrokes. Untitled (Lot 311) is an iconic example from the series, in which the artist used a collage to depict the moon amidst the orange sky, with a perspective that lets us look down upon the Earth, as though viewers are in space and part of the heavens. In 1958 at the age of 26, Chuang Che joined the Fifth Moon Group. He was born in Beijing to the famous calligrapher Chuang Yan. Influenced by his father from a young age, Chuang had a great interest in art and studied under Chu Teh-Chun in National Taiwan Normal University, thus starting his lifelong quest towards mastering Abstract art. In the 1960s, he travelled across Europe and the United States and was inspired by the sights he saw to combine the freehand lines from Chinese landscape paintings with the rich colours of European Abstract paintings to fully visualise the grand scenery that had impressed him so much. Untitled (Lot 312) is a large format masterpiece that was completed after he had matured his technique, using a vertical compositional style from Chinese landscape painting yet also featuring bright and vibrant colours, magnificently portraying the soaring peaks, drifting clouds, and flowing lights between them. Hsiao Chin from Ton Fan Art Group was influenced by Tibetan Tantric and Indian religious paintings to greatly emphasize the placement of colours and geometric separation in his paintings. His early Abstract works, such as Tension VI (Lot 314) and Peace and Contemplation – 2 (Lot 315), tended to be relatively hard edged – he greatly simplified his paintings and made use of the contrast between multiple colour blocks to bring about a meditative effect, finding a delicate balance between nothingness and tension on the canvas. His Passage Through the Great Threshold Series in the 1980s and 1990s shows his recognition of the ultimate unity of the universe, Grande Soglia – A (The Great Threshold - A) (Lot 316), Passage Through the Great Threshold -89 (Lot 317) present the infinity of the universe as large blocks of flowing colours. After the millennium as he went past his 60s, he further saw through the mysteries of life and created Universe - 1 (Lot 318) and Il Mio Amore nell'Universo(My Love in The Universe) (Lot 319), in which dark blue is used to illustrate the unfathomable depth of the universe, combined with detailed dotting to outline the main subject, filling the canvas with Western philosophy as well as astern metaphysics.
FIFTH MOON GROUP & AND TON FAN ART GROUP
Fifth Moon Group and Ton Fan Art Group were two art groups from Taiwan that became popular in the mid-1950s, and their ranks were filled by young artists who were born prior to the Second World War and grew up during the war. Most of them received systematic artistic training – Fifth Moon Group's ranks had many graduates from the Art Department at National Taiwan Normal University, such as Liu Kuo-sung, Chuang Che, Chen Ting-Shih, Fong Chung- Ray; Ton Fan Art Group was founded by Li Chun-Shan and was filled with students from his studio such as Hsiao Chin, Li Yuan-Chia, Hsia Yan, Chu Wei-Bor and Ho Kang. Both art groups focused on the "modernization movement of Chinese modern art", which affirms the importance of traditional Chinese painting concepts while seeking ever-bolder expressions and techniques. They made deft use of oil paint, ink wash, sculpture, printmaking, and other mediums from the East and the West to add contemporary twists to Abstract art. Their innovations quickly received praise from the international art world - in the late 1950s and 1960s when the market for modern art was still nascent in Asia, both groups had already boasted members in the top art exhibition Sao Paulo Art Biennial, marking Asia's entry into the world stage and an important milestone of the age.
Born in 1932, Liu Kuo-sung was a founding member of Fifth Moon Group, and also a pioneering figure in the movement to reinvent Chinese ink wash paintings. He took it upon himself to experiment with ink wash and redefined the techniques, brushstrokes, and use of paper in Chinese paintings, using his own methods such as geometric collage, tearing, and paper marbling to thoroughly modernise ink wash paintings. In the late 1960s, he was inspired by the Apollo Mission's moon landing and created his Space Series of works, exploring the universe through his brushstrokes. Untitled (Lot 311) is an iconic example from the series, in which the artist used a collage to depict the moon amidst the orange sky, with a perspective that lets us look down upon the Earth, as though viewers are in space and part of the heavens. In 1958 at the age of 26, Chuang Che joined the Fifth Moon Group. He was born in Beijing to the famous calligrapher Chuang Yan. Influenced by his father from a young age, Chuang had a great interest in art and studied under Chu Teh-Chun in National Taiwan Normal University, thus starting his lifelong quest towards mastering Abstract art. In the 1960s, he travelled across Europe and the United States and was inspired by the sights he saw to combine the freehand lines from Chinese landscape paintings with the rich colours of European Abstract paintings to fully visualise the grand scenery that had impressed him so much. Untitled (Lot 312) is a large format masterpiece that was completed after he had matured his technique, using a vertical compositional style from Chinese landscape painting yet also featuring bright and vibrant colours, magnificently portraying the soaring peaks, drifting clouds, and flowing lights between them. Hsiao Chin from Ton Fan Art Group was influenced by Tibetan Tantric and Indian religious paintings to greatly emphasize the placement of colours and geometric separation in his paintings. His early Abstract works, such as Tension VI (Lot 314) and Peace and Contemplation – 2 (Lot 315), tended to be relatively hard edged – he greatly simplified his paintings and made use of the contrast between multiple colour blocks to bring about a meditative effect, finding a delicate balance between nothingness and tension on the canvas. His Passage Through the Great Threshold Series in the 1980s and 1990s shows his recognition of the ultimate unity of the universe, Grande Soglia – A (The Great Threshold - A) (Lot 316), Passage Through the Great Threshold -89 (Lot 317) present the infinity of the universe as large blocks of flowing colours. After the millennium as he went past his 60s, he further saw through the mysteries of life and created Universe - 1 (Lot 318) and Il Mio Amore nell'Universo(My Love in The Universe) (Lot 319), in which dark blue is used to illustrate the unfathomable depth of the universe, combined with detailed dotting to outline the main subject, filling the canvas with Western philosophy as well as astern metaphysics.