Xu Lei

signed in Chinese, framed

Private Chinese Collection

Master Oriental Art, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China, 2010.2, p. 53
Xu Lei, Culture and Art Publishing House, Beijing, China, 2013, p. 43
Veneer of the World: Essays on Xu Lei, Culture and Art Publishing House, Beijing, China, 2013, p. 142 (detail)

Overall in good condition
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Serendipitous Discovery
Xu Lei  Evoking the Past

Studying the work of Xu Lei is a tranquil pleasure. His blue tableaus are tinted with contemplation and melancholy; his ingenious compositions are clever and keen. Filled with serendipitous discoveries, they bring us the magic and delight of surrealist imagery.  Through them, we experience the ways in which the artist plays with the philosophical and rhetorical relationships between images.

As a traditional Chinese medium and form, ink wash painting has evolved and adapted continuously for more than a millennium. Each era of each dynasty has had contemporary ink wash painting and contemporary ink wash artists, and each of these artists has built on or subverted the foundations established by their predecessors in order to create their own unique artistic language. Xu Lei is considered one such contemporary artist. For several decades, Xu Lei's contemporary creations continue to mesmerize and astound viewers with virtuosity and surrealism.

Xu Lei's work bridges past and present while blending East and West. His practice is based on an understanding of traditional Chinese painting and culture, but he also incorporates the ideas and concepts of Western art. The result is a dramatic staging of scenes that engage in metaphoric dialogue with the viewer. Curtains that separate space, Ming dynasty furniture, birds and beasts that enter the tableau, ornamental landscapes, high-heeled shoes, ancient maps, and folding screens are some of the images we see in Xu's paintings. The integration and juxtaposition of such diverse elements lend each work its own unique metaphorical content.

Evoking the Past (Lot 19) is an extremely special work, providing a metaphor on love and sexual desire. As usual, the picture plane features Xu Lei's beloved hue of blue, which bears connection to the internationally distinguished bright Klein blue formulated by the French painter Yves Klein. Herein, Xu draws on this cool, shadowy shade of ultramarine to immerse us in his painting, within which we can step onto the road to the unreal.

The tableau features familiar elements including folding screens, a square Ming table, a swan, and a curtain. The folding screens divide the picture plane, drawing the eyes of curious viewers to the scene within the narrow space between them. The low Ming table is revealed in the mid-ground with a topographical painting inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci on top. Against the curtained backdrop, a swan lands atop the map and, with head lowered, curiously steals a glance from behind the screen. The viewer, unable to see what it is the swan witnesses, is left with unlimited room for imagination.

This present work recalls the imagery of Leda and the Swan, the fabled Green myth that extols mankind's thirst for and pursuit of sexual love. Xu Lei merges the Western tale with Chinese literature. The Chinese title of the present work refers to the state of longing mentioned in the often quoted parting song The Rain-Soaked Bell by the renowned Northern Song dynasty poet Liu Yong:
During this long year of separation,
All fine moments and lovely scenes will appear to me in vain.
Even if there are a thousand varieties of tender emotion,
To whom could I impart them now?