Liu Ye

signed in Chinese and pinyin and dated 2001

London, Chinese Contemporary, Liu Ye: Fellini, A Guardsman, Mondrian, The Pope and My Girlfriend, April 2001, pp. 24-25
Beijing, Asia Art Center, The Power of the Universe: The Frontier of Contemporary Chinese Art, 2007, pp. 141-142

Exh. cat., Red Yellow Blue, Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong, 2004, p. 25

Generally in very good condition. Some very minor horizontal scuff marks in the top half of the painting, one to the right of the sun, approx 4.5cm, another group of minor marks just above the sun covering an area of approx 4.2cm and another mark above, approx 4cm. Some minor abrasions to the paint in the four corners and minor paint cracks along the edges of the stretcher.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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Unlike many Chinese contemporary artists, Liu Ye's work developed independently of any school - be it Cynical Realism or Political Pop - that developed in the 1990s. During this pivotal period in China's recent history, Liu Ye was completing his studies in Germany. Instead, his work stands alone as an individual, personal vision eloquently laced with the political environment intrinsic to his upbringing.

Despite growing up during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), his artistic side was stimulated from an early age. He remembers the fairy tales his grandmother used to tell him in the evenings, and, gifted with a naturally inquisitive mind these stories inspired him to create his own fantasies as a child.

His father was an author and illustrator of children's books and his mother a school teacher. Like many intellectuals, his parents were persecuted and sent to the countryside for re-education under Mao's policy of forced manual labour. Yet illicitly he kept a stash of many books whose illegality only served to excite the artist as a child and further fuel his imagination. "It was politically dangerous to read such books in those days. However, these fantastic stories with their beautiful illustrations opened a new and wonderful world to me" (the artist cited by Anna Sansom in 'The Beautiful and the Banned' in Whitewall, Fall 2006, p. 66).

At the age of 15 he went to design school to study industrial design, a strict discipline which required rational thinking. He remembers, "technical drawing was the most fearsome subject for me. You have to dip the drawing pen in ink and then draw fine straight lines with the use of various rulers... It demands no imagination, only accuracy" (Liu Ye, Red, Yellow, Blue, Schoeni Art Gallery Ltd, Hong Kong, 2003, p.18). Later on he was to find the same cold emotion in Mondrian's paintings - which greatly influenced his later and current work. An imaginative childhood and the structured rational thinking of his student days are two fundamental experiences which have influenced his work.

His paintings feature childhood memories, tales and childlike notions of happiness: the product of fantasia. Many of the figures in his paintings are children or if adult have childlike features, suggesting that the artist is reaching back into his own childhood for inspiration. The influence of cartoon animation is clear, and he has even admitted that in his eyes the Dutch cartoonist Dick Bruna and the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki are "as great as Da Vinci" (Liu Ye, Red, Yellow, Blue, Schoeni Art Gallery Ltd, Hong Kong, 2003,  p.31).

The first thing that strikes the viewer about his work is the simple use of vivid primary colours and the cartoon-like compositions. In Love is Romantic (Lot 916), this is particularly apparent with the predominant use of red. The artist's clear-cut choice of palette undeniably carries a message. Red being symbolic of Communist China, the colour also has associations with anger, danger and bloodshed, but in Chinese culture and symbolism, also good luck and success. For Liu Ye the colour is loaded with political connotations, as the artist explains, red is the prevailing memory of his youth in China, "I grew up in a world of red: the red sun, red flags, red scarves, with green pines and sunflowers often supporting the red symbols" (the artist cited by Anna Sansom in 'The Beautiful and the Banned' in Whitewall, Fall 2006, p. 66).

Inspired by traditional Chinese landscape painting, this work sees a man and a woman perched on a rock above misty clouds and pine trees with mountains rolling into the distance under an orange-red sky, the huge sun setting behind clouds. However, in place of the usual scholar and attendant, here the main protagonists are a ballerina and danceur in performance costume dancing en pointe.

It is suggested that The Nutcracker, the fairytale ballet composed by Tchaikovsky in 1891-92, inspired this work. Just as in the ballet where Clara and the Prince travel from reality into the Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy, here in Liu Ye's work too are the pair of dancers set amid a fairytale wonderland. By juxtaposing the delighted dancers against the monumental setting red sun, is Liu Ye perhaps indicating the triumph of the arts over Mao's Cultural Revolution?

Behind the simple comic book façade of his work lies a wealth of hidden meaning. The major issues of the moment are never more than a step removed from Liu Ye's work, at once hidden and put into relief by his stunning painterly bricolage. Exactly what meaning Liu Ye is trying to convey is left for the viewer to decide. He admits, "To others and myself, my paintings contain merely clues. The motives are hidden deeply in the painting itself. In fact I quite enjoy having others misinterpret my works. It is impossible for me to fully reveal my secrets to other people" (Liu Ye, Red, Yellow, Blue, Schoeni Art Gallery Ltd, Hong Kong, 2003, p.20).