.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
“I didn’t want to become an artist who portrays real life. I wanted to return to the early Renaissance, but not realism.” – Liu Ye, in conversation with Philip Tinari
Liu Ye’s Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue is one of the earliest paintings in the artist’s oeuvre to feature a combination of elements that would later become trademarks of his mature style. The composition is dominated by a single vibrant primary colour, in this case, a bright canary yellow. A painting by Mondrian – one of Liu Ye’s favourite artists and the inspiration for the painting’s title – leans against a wall, half-tucked behind a curtain. A mysterious shadow runs along the length of the painting’s right side. And most surreal of all, a man hovers in mid-air, suspended by the string hanging from a large blue balloon.
In 1995, the year that this work was completed, Liu Ye had recently returned to Beijing after spending time studying overseas in Berlin. Filled with new experiences and a deeper understanding of art history, Liu Ye began to create paintings that allowed for the clearer crystallization of themes that had been present in his work for a long time. The artist’s love of Mondrian is well known, and explicit reproductions of Mondrian’s paintings begin appearing in Liu Ye’s work as early as 1992. Yet it is only in this work that a Mondrian appears in a shallow space dominated by a single colour tone, an iconic composition that would be developed and echoed in Mondrian in London, painted in 2001.
Liu Ye is open about the influence that various artists have had on his work, citing de Chirico, Balthus, and Van Eyck as sources of inspiration. “For all of the nineties, I was greatly influenced by Surrealism and metaphysical art movements.” says Liu Ye. “If I draw a sitting figure, it is realistic, and if I add wings, it is a bit postmodern. Of course, back then, my thinking was quite naive. Regardless, I wanted to convey a certain state or feeling that was between Realism and Surrealism.”
The theme of the self-portrait is also significant in Liu Ye’s early work, and Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue includes not one but two figures that might be interpreted as the artist depicting himself. The central figure hovers improbably in the centre of the canvas, wearing a Magritte-like bowler hat and robes that resemble the vestments a priest might wear. His hands are clasped – in prayer or around the string of the balloon is unclear – and wings sprout from his shoulders, heralding his angelic status. Meanwhile, a figure wearing the same dark glasses crouches behind a chair, peeking playfully through the slats. Perhaps the two figures represent two sides of the artist’s personality, suggesting Liu's ambivalence as he pays artistic tribute to his heroes even while seeking to escape from them.
Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue introduces aesthetic, philosophical and visual dualities that are present in many of Liu's works: the play between that which is hidden and that which is revealed, between revelation and obscurity, between truth and mystery, between outer form and inner expression. In a vivid yet dream-like space, Liu Ye pays homage to his predecessors while crafting a visual style all his own.
Liu Ye’s Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue is one of the earliest paintings in the artist’s oeuvre to feature a combination of elements that would later become trademarks of his mature style. The composition is dominated by a single vibrant primary colour, in this case, a bright canary yellow. A painting by Mondrian – one of Liu Ye’s favourite artists and the inspiration for the painting’s title – leans against a wall, half-tucked behind a curtain. A mysterious shadow runs along the length of the painting’s right side. And most surreal of all, a man hovers in mid-air, suspended by the string hanging from a large blue balloon.
In 1995, the year that this work was completed, Liu Ye had recently returned to Beijing after spending time studying overseas in Berlin. Filled with new experiences and a deeper understanding of art history, Liu Ye began to create paintings that allowed for the clearer crystallization of themes that had been present in his work for a long time. The artist’s love of Mondrian is well known, and explicit reproductions of Mondrian’s paintings begin appearing in Liu Ye’s work as early as 1992. Yet it is only in this work that a Mondrian appears in a shallow space dominated by a single colour tone, an iconic composition that would be developed and echoed in Mondrian in London, painted in 2001.
Liu Ye is open about the influence that various artists have had on his work, citing de Chirico, Balthus, and Van Eyck as sources of inspiration. “For all of the nineties, I was greatly influenced by Surrealism and metaphysical art movements.” says Liu Ye. “If I draw a sitting figure, it is realistic, and if I add wings, it is a bit postmodern. Of course, back then, my thinking was quite naive. Regardless, I wanted to convey a certain state or feeling that was between Realism and Surrealism.”
The theme of the self-portrait is also significant in Liu Ye’s early work, and Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue includes not one but two figures that might be interpreted as the artist depicting himself. The central figure hovers improbably in the centre of the canvas, wearing a Magritte-like bowler hat and robes that resemble the vestments a priest might wear. His hands are clasped – in prayer or around the string of the balloon is unclear – and wings sprout from his shoulders, heralding his angelic status. Meanwhile, a figure wearing the same dark glasses crouches behind a chair, peeking playfully through the slats. Perhaps the two figures represent two sides of the artist’s personality, suggesting Liu's ambivalence as he pays artistic tribute to his heroes even while seeking to escape from them.
Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue introduces aesthetic, philosophical and visual dualities that are present in many of Liu's works: the play between that which is hidden and that which is revealed, between revelation and obscurity, between truth and mystery, between outer form and inner expression. In a vivid yet dream-like space, Liu Ye pays homage to his predecessors while crafting a visual style all his own.