Xu Lei

signed XU LEI, titled, and dated 2008

United Kingdom, London, Saatchi Gallery, Ink: The Art of China, 19 June - 5 July, 2012, p. 64

Kuo, Jason C., Chinese Ink Painting Now, Distributed Art Publishers, New York, USA; Timezone 8, Hong Kong, China, 2010, cover, p.24, 207
Xu Lei, Culture and Art Publishing House, Beijing, China, 2013, p. 16

Overall in very good condition. Framed size: 227 x 135 cm; 89 3/8 x 53 1/8 in.
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Xu Lei is considered one of the leading contemporary ink artists using the gongbi (fine-line) painting technique. With a touch of magical realism, Xu Lei envisions the magical nature behind our rational world, with exquisite detail and smooth photographic clarity. His paintings' iconic shadowy rooms and veiled stages both reveal and conceal the decadent visual culture of China's imperial past. The present lot, Tree of Blue Underglaze (Lot 521), is a classic example of Xu Lei's integration of symbols from the past to create new, surreal contexts that defy simple categorization. The stalwart horse stands, just as it would have been depicted by Jesuit painters in 18th century court paintings, but is decorated with the popular blue and white floral patterns of Ming and Qing porcelains.

Xu's distinctive style matured in the early 1990s during a period of dramatic change in Chinese contemporary art. Without succumbing to a reinterpretation of New Literati Painting (often associated with landscape and figure paintings that celebrate idle pleasures) or directly referring to the social-political issues of Cynical Realism (known for its frequent depiction of anonymous figures with fake expressions of amusement), Xu exhibits a unique and literary artistic language of magical realism that distinguishes him as one of the most sophisticated contemporary painters of his generation.  Recognized as both as an artist and scholar, Xu imbues his works with a thoughtful balance of symbolism to engage audiences from both China and abroad. The sultry blue colour is a subtle nod to the blue monochrome paintings of Yves Klein as well as the rich mineral colors of Chinese blue-green landscape paintings from the Song and Yuan dyansties.

Born in Nantong, Jiangsu, in 1963 Xu Lei studied ink painting at the Department of Fine Arts of Nanjing Art Academy. Currently he is a Scholar at the China Art Research Institute and is the Art Director of Beijing's Today Art Museum. A true contemporary literati, Xu Lei is well-grounded in Western and Chinese aesthetics and art history. With delicate layered brushwork and a gentle palette, Xu Lei's saturated ink paintings are fragile dreamscapes full of enticing mystery. His works are in private collections and prominent museums in Asia and the U.S., including the Shanghai Art Museum, the Nanjing Art Institute, the Today Art Museum and Asian Division of the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. He has shown his work at the National Art Museum of China, Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Hong Kong Arts Centre and several other museums and institutions. Among a selective list of celebrated international artists, Xu Lei's design was chosen as the wine label for Chateau Mouton Rothschild's 2008 vintage.