Liu Ye

signed in Chinese and Pinyin and dated 98, framed

Private Collection
Christie's, Hong Kong, 27 May, 2007, lot 497
Private Collection (Acquired from the above sale)
Christie's, Hong Kong, 26 November, 2011, lot 1030
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

Taiwan, Taipei, My Humble House Art Gallery, Liu Ye Solo Exhibition: Red & Blue, 31 October - 16 November 2014, unpaginated

This work is generally in good condition. There is minor wear in handling marks around the edges and around the top right corner. There is a minor cleaning mark in the top left corner. 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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A Fairy Tale Above the Waves
Liu Ye

To descend into Liu Ye’s world is to step into a fairy tale: after all the artist has confessed, “I always feel that I live every moment in a fairy tale world.”¹ Populating his oeuvre are sailors, cherubic children, and even Dick Bruna’s Miffy, set against a sea of sapphire here, a luscious valley there, or even yet, frosty scenes of land covered in snow.  It is this charming quality to Liu’s works that have gained him worldwide acclaim. Sotheby’s is pleased to offer for this sale an early piece from Liu Ye’s oeuvre, Blue Sea (Lot 1059), a charming piece which contains numerous symbols that are instantly recognisable in the artist’s work.   

 

For Liu Ye, childhood is the pinnacle of joy. As he tells the art critic Leng Lin, “Childhood, for me, was a golden time, many aspects of my painting reflect my childhood imagination and fantasies.”² Born in 1964, Liu was very much a child of the Cultural Revolution, although the artist explains that it never directly affected him in a negative way; instead, it was merely a background to his upbringing, a time when a loving family sheltered him from any possible strife or conflict. During this time, his father, who was an author of propaganda children’s stories, would slip his son banned children’s books, written by the likes of Lewis Carroll and Hans Christian Andersen, spurring Liu’s imagination and broadening his mindscape. The artist thus grew up in this idyllic childhood, before enrolling at the department of Industrial Design at the Beijing School of Arts and Crafts at the tender age of fifteen. Having later graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Liu pursued a Master’s Degree in the Kunsthochschule Berlin in Germany—a place which would become the source of many of his lasting motifs.

 

One such recurring motif is the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian’s style, an artist whose clean linear considerations see themselves reproduced in Liu Ye’s works. To Liu, “Mondrian’s elements appear in my [Liu’s] paintings as spiritual symbols. His [Mondrian’s] paintings are so simply pure: only the basic colours and vertical and horizontal lines. I’d also like to solve the problem of simplicity.” Piet Mondrian’s essence can surely be sensed in Blue Sea, a work governed by orderly lines. These lines separate the piece into ostensibly four dimensions: the ship on which the sailor stands, a vast expanse of sea, a distant warship, and clouds beyond this, floating above the horizon. Though these four elements are of course at different distances, Blue Sea seems to flatten them, allowing them to converge and coexist in the same space. In this sense, the warship seems to be floating casually above the sailor’s head; or perhaps yet, that the sea is a mysterious body of substance that has become the background to the ship itself. Either way, this compressed effect injects an element of whimsicality, or even humour, into the painting.

 

Similarly in Mondrian’s works can we detect themes of compression: where different planes exist within the same dimension. When we return to Blue Sea, this technique of compression is further explored by Liu: rather than simply presenting a coexistence of planes, Liu has used the technique to instil a sense of trompe-l'œil in its viewer. Furthermore, he has used this trickery to his advantage, aligning with this a childish effect—it is as if a child has lorded over this dimension, where sea, sky and ship can exist in the same space and time, in a perfectly rational manner. For an artist who wields his brush just as easily as he escapes into his childhood, this is a brilliant instance where form echoes feeling; where style complements sentiment. Liu Ye is an artist who is adept at breathing new life into his muses, effortlessly transforming them into things of his own.

 

Dominating Blue Sea is also a rich navy blue, a colour which is common in Liu’s works. One is immediately reminded of the deep hue of Yves Klein’s famous pigment, International Klein Blue (IKB), which was patented in 1960. Fittingly, Klein considered IKB capable of “eradicating the flat dividing line of the horizon, [that] would evoke a unification of heaven and earth.”³ When considered alongside Blue Sea, whose very content seeks to blur the horizon, creating a “unification of heaven and earth”, one may consider the use of this colour more than just accidental. The depth created by the layer upon layer of deep navy gives the illusion of waves, a sea of portentous shadows at the foot of which can be seen a warship. The meticulous treatment of the sea is typical of Liu Ye’s works, where many coats of paint in varying shades are applied, then reapplied to the canvas in order to create a sense of profundity and dimension. Just before this sea is the sun-drenched deck of the ship whereupon a sailor stands— looking in the wrong direction for threats and danger. Herein lies the humour in Liu’s works. As the artist himself mentions, “I’m not used to thinking profoundly about problems. I treat problems irrationally.”⁴ Often his early works depict scenes filled with latent danger: blissfully ignorant children dancing in front of falling planes, or sinking ships. In such a way, their childhood innocence is intact, preserving the illusion that their worlds are safe. Perhaps in this way, the artist relives his childhood vicariously through the children in his works. In Blue Sea, we see a sailor failing to indicate the danger of the warship on the horizon. The scene is verging on the farcical; a product of the artist’s inability to deal with his issues in a rational manner, perhaps even avoiding them.

 

Blue Sea is a work that combines two elements of Liu’s style: that of the magical, but also of the contemplative. Liu has once said, “I have an equal passion towards both fairy tales and philosophy…Fairy tales are illusioned and sensational whereas philosophy is about strict and rational thinking.  My paintings ramble between these two opponent spheres.”⁵ The present work is indeed in equal parts magical as it is meditative, and serves as a valid slice of the artist’s mental-scape. Both charming and contemplative, this early work retains many seemingly paradoxical elements of Liu’s style. While “strict and rational” linear considerations are present, there is also a sense of the “sensational”, and perhaps absurd. In Blue Sea, we see that the potencies of these two feelings are somehow tamed by Liu, creating a visually but also thematically stunning piece of work.

1 Liu Ye: mit Essays von Bernhard Fibicher und Zhu Zhu, Kunstmuseum Bern, 2007, p.74

2 Liu Ye, Mingjingdi Gallery, 1997, p.42

3 Yves Klein: 1928 – 1962, Germany, Taschen Basic Art, 2001

4 “Questions and Answers, Leng Lin and Liu Ye”, Liu Ye, Mingjingdi Gallery, 1997

5 “Liu Ye: Temptations”, Sperone Westwater, 14 September – 28 October 2006