LOT DETAILS

Materials:

Oil on paper

Measurements:

30.31 in. (77.00 cm.) (height) by 21.65 in. (55.00 cm.) (width)

Markings:

Signed in Japanese on bottom left; titled, signed in Japnese with one artist’s seal on bottom reverse

Provenance:

PROVENANCEImportant Private Collection, AsiaLines Flowing Like the Wind, Fusing East and WestThe Abstract Calligraphy-esque Paintings by John WayJohn Way was born into a Shanghainese family of scholars. He studied calligraphy after Li Zhongqian since the age of ten, and later researched into oracle and epigraphic scripts and seal carving, which laid his solid foundation of Chinese traditional culture, and planted the seed for his adoption of both Chinese calligraphy and the western avant-garde art. In 1956, he immigrated to the US, where he followed the trend of Abstract Expressionism by devoting himself to the abstract painting creation. This experience has made him one of the pioneers of contemporary oversea Chinese artists who first experimented on abstract art. Wei is inspired by the Chinese epigraphic calligraphy and embodies his artwork with the western Abstract Expressionism, to create an unparalleled art form of “calligraphic abstract” which is hardly mimicked by others.The two works sold during this auction, Abstract and Red Sunset, exemplify the artist John Way’s unique fusion of the wisdom of Chinese calligraphy with the bold and unrestrained nature of Western abstract painting. Abstract was completed in the 1980s, at a mature phase during the artist’s career. The forceful black lines that sweep across the pictorial plane create the same visual effect as the po’mo （“splashing ink” or “broken ink”） technique used in Chinese ink-wash landscapes. The artist manipulates oil paints in much the same way that a master of Chinese calligraphy manipulates ink： by maintaining a subtle control over the force in his wrist, he lends a sense of momentum and energy to each stroke of the brush. The blues and bright red used in the background serve to set off the black lines while at the same time giving the image a three-dimensional, multi-layered effect. For the second artwork, Red Sunset, John Way uses oil paints as a means of creating an even greater range of gradients within strokes of the same hue. These strokes then combine with overlapping black lines in order to evoke a powerful sense of spatial depth. The color red, which takes up two-thirds of the image, pours downward from top to bottom, while the horizontal blue strokes at the bottom create a sense of balance in terms of color and composition. Wei’s use of the liu bai traditional technique （concerning empty spaces untouched by ink） furthermore creates white lines that flow through the image like the wind, and the cool and rational way in which John Way composed this work are in harmony with the freehand brushwork technique used in traditional “splashing ink” landscapes.