Richard Lin (Lin Shouyu)

Marlborough Gallery Label affixed to the reverse
Executed in 1974

Marlborough Gallery, London
Private Asian Collection

Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art ,One is Everything, Homage to the Master: 50 Years of Work by Richard Lin,  May-September, 2010

One is Everything, Homage to the Master: 50 Years of Work by Richard Lin, Kaohsiung, 2010, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art Publishing, p.195

Aside for some craquelure at the lower center part of the canvas, this work is in good condition.
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The artist Richard Lin, who spent much of his life in the United Kingdom, pursued minimalism as a means of expression and his work represents the styles of Geometric or Cold Abstraction. In his famous White Series, Lin returns to his most basic artistic expression. When looking at these works, one might almost think it is a blank canvas, however, after examining it carefully, one can see through the pure white the artist's clever use of depth, light, contrasts and different transparencies within the colour white. In the centre of the canvas he often includes several long, thin lines of colour, breaking away from a pure and absolute world. In 1970, the artist Miró once visited Lin in his studio during a visit to the UK. Standing in front of Lin's White Series, Miró said:

"In the world of white, no one can exceed you."

Lin once said of his work that although he uses a Western medium, the meaning of his work is based on Chinese philosophy.  In his paintings he "completely removes any sense of the primitive, wild or literary, relying completely on visual sensation as a means to comprehend the spirit of Chinese culture". As Lin has said himself he "can paint endless words, but what I have said or written does not convey all I have on my mind ", thereby describing his most vivid and absolute aesthetic logic.