Liu Wei

signed in Chinese and Pinyin, titled in Chinese and English, dated 1999.6; signed in Chinese and Pinyin and dated 1999.6.1 on the reverse 

Acquired directly by the present owner from the artist
Important Private European Collector

Belgium, Oostende, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Between Earth and Heaven –New Classical Movements in the Art of Today, 23 February – 2 September, 2001
Belgium, Brussels, BOZAR; China, Beijing, National Art Museum of China, The State of Things: Contemporary Art from China and Belgium, 18 October, 2009 - 10 January, 2010; 1 May - 30 May, 2010

This work is generally in good condition. Upon close inspection, there appears to be minor pinpoint cracks throughout the work, with the most noticeable being a hairline craquelure measuring ca. 7 cm., in the upper left quadrant, near the top of the tree. Having examined the work under ultraviolet light, there appears to be no evidence of restoration.
"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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Emancipation from Chaos
Liu Wei

Liu Wei once said, “Painting just goes in tandem with my living.  It is restricted neither by forms nor by outside constraints.  I use my hands to paint my heart.”¹ This almost summarises Liu Wei’s entire artistic philosophy: just follow the heart, do not shackle one’s brush with too many concepts or ideologies.  Attain selflessness completely; the brush should merely follow the heart.   Therefore Liu Wei said: a man’s greatest enemy is himself.  In fact, by tracing the path of Liu Wei’s creation, we can see how he had transformed from his past style.  In his early years, The Revolutionary Family Series was cynical and frivolous.  Later he totally followed his heart and his use of brush was more at ease and freer.  Between debauchery and gaudiness, his uniquely stylish brushwork paints unequaled scenery in Chinese contemporary art.
     We Love Nature (Lot 1045) is a representative piece of the early works in Liu Wei’s Landscape Series of 1999.  Inheriting the pink meat and debauch beauty of his Meat Series, We Love Nature paved the way for the introspective Who Am I? Series and the more relaxed and placid Landscape Series.  We Love Nature is rare as the artist seldom combines landscape and portrait, it is even rarer as single point perspective is hard to come by in his landscape paintings.  In fact, Liu Wei only started to paint landscape in 1998.  Other than being one of the first works in his Landscape Series, We Love Nature also boasts a single point perspective which is scarce in his contemporaneous and later works.  Single point perspective is a drawing method in traditional Western landscape painting, which is a far cry from the aestheticism of cavalier perspective in traditional Chinese landscape painting.  In We Love Nature, a country road leads the viewers from the woods in the background to the road entrance in the foreground, creating a bottom-up perspective effect.  On the left-hand side, the artist adds a group portrait of a five-member family and surrounds it with a heart-shaped white line.  Within the heart shape are Liu Wei’s humorous, cynical and even mutually-contradictory writings such as “I love nature”, “I love smoking” and “I love flower”.  A skull and crossbones, a recurring motif in Liu Wei’s paintings, appears above the group portrait.  This does not only reflect the artist’s feelings towards life at the moment, but also enhances the depth of appreciation as if the work showcases an eternal wrestle between Men and Nature.
     When it comes to drawing techniques, Liu Wei seldom pays particular attention to perspective in the composition of his works.  His style is closer to the cavalier perspective in traditional Chinese landscape painting.  The early pieces in his Landscape Series created in 1998 and 1999 have inherited the brushwork of the Meat Series.  The pink slope in the foreground is painted with thick and expressive brushstroke, whereas small huts or woods decorate the background.  By rendering the pink slope in the foreground in an abstract manner, Liu Wei breaks the depth of field formed in the background.  This kind of works abounds in Liu Wei’s creative life.  Therefore, We Love Nature is indeed a remarkable breakthrough in terms of creative techniques.
     Graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989, Liu Wei is one of the most representative artists of the post-89 era.  Together with Fang Lijun, another Cynical Realism representative, the duo seized the atmosphere of the nineties and co-held their first exhibition in 1992.  The exhibition has drawn the attention of both local and overseas art critics, including Johnson Chang Tsong-zung, the owner of an art gallery in Hong Kong.  In 1993, Chang asked Liu Wei to take part in the world tour of his exhibition “China’s New Art, Post-1989”.  Liu Wei was also subsequently invited to join other international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale 1993 and 1995, as well as the São Paulo Biennial 1994.  Undoubtedly, as a representative of the Chinese artists in the nineties, Liu Wei shocked the Western art world.
     Right after graduation, Liu Wei began to create the Revolutionary Family Series.  Although the series was displayed at many international exhibitions, Liu Wei had only painted it for less than three years, from 1990 to 1992.  This is a rare phenomenon in the market.  The series is strongly autobiographic, wherein most of those portrayed are people around Liu Wei.  Among them, his father in revolutionary army uniform is the soul of the series.  Used to depict his life, Liu Wei naturally includes his own father in his paintings.  Technique-wise, Liu Wei boldly departed from the official aesthetic system of the time and abandoned social realism, portraying people with distorted and free brushstrokes.  The unique style makes the portraits bizarre, or even grotesque.  In comparing the early and later works in this Series, we can find subtle changes in Liu Wei’s style.  While his brushwork was almost utterly realistic in the early stage, it gradually relaxed and became unconstrained, demonstrating the talent and wisdom rarely seen in other contemporaneous artists.  When compared with the Chinese art in the eighties, Liu Wei’s works are free of the burden of ideology and the responsibility as artist.  To be wantonly cynical is his attitude towards life and art.  As a result, at the spiritual level, his works display a feeling of “indifference”, which is exactly the spirit of “Cynical Realism” as pointed out by Li Xianting.
     1995 was one of the most crucial years in Liu Wei’s creative life.  At that time, Political Pop was an important symbol of contemporary Chinese art in overseas exhibitions.  Having attracted a high degree of attention, Political Pop became a popular trend.  Liu Wei, at this juncture, chose to depart from his early style of strong political colour as demonstrated in the Revolutionary Family Series.  His painting language became more cynical and willful, divorcing himself completely from the realistic painting style of academism.  Feelings were released in a naked manner through his brush.  The subject matters ignored all social constraints and challenged the viewers’ acceptance as well as their conventional way of looking at art.  You Like Meat?, which was exhibited in the Venice Biennale 1995, laid the foundation for this style.  The Meat Series that followed pushed this style to its limit.  The naked meat was decaying yet mesmerising.  Hidden in the blood and bone was a visual sensation that excited viewers, a manifestation of the tension and contradiction between the repression and liberation of desire.  Always acting according to his own will as an artist, Liu Wei was utterly honest in the works.
     The importance of the Meat Series was not about one or two paintings.  It actually set the stage for the artist’s future style.  The same technique was applied recklessly again and again on his canvases, including the Landscape Series which started in 1998.  In 2000, Liu Wei continued to act as he pleased.  But then he entered his prime of life and became more relaxed mentally.  His cultural accomplishment also changed his brushwork.  In 2001, he embarked on the Landscape Series which was filled with oriental aesthetic charm.  In pursuit of harmony with Nature, his style evolved from complexity to simplicity and eventually reached a state of selflessness.  His brushstroke changed from heavy to relaxed.  The new brushwork was extended to his other portrait series.  Although the tacky beauty as in the Meat Series no longer existed, the decaying style was still his signature.
     Hu Yungfen, the curator of Liu Wei’s first solo exhibition in Taiwan, summarised the artist’s unique style: “It is not imitable.  His style is a signature that banters, provokes and tantalizes the sensation of viewers.  The disorderly and chaotic brushwork looks like an expression of aesthetic paranoia, yet it is exactly what Liu Wei wants to say in the face of the impermanence and eventual collapse of reality.  He wants to make use of his unique style to turn wonder into rot.”²  Liu Wei once said that men are living just to await death.  “I only want to live according to my feelings.”³  Putting this attitude in his works, Liu Wei exemplifies his unrestraint with oil and colour. We Love Naturefully reflects his spirit.

1 Liu Wei, Saatchi Gallery, 2009

2 "The Rose Amongst the Debauched: A Rising Genius”, Liu Wei: Painting Solo, Lin & Lin Gallery, 2012

3 Refer to 1