Tai Xiangzhou

executed in 2015
signed in Chinese and marked with one seal of the artist

Acquired directly from the artist
Private Asian Collection

The Cosmos is representative of Tai Xiangzhou’s most stylised Celestial Chaos series, exhibited since 2014. The composition and subject are an evolution from the artist’s traditional portrayals of Northern Song and Yuan dynasty landscape paintings. In the present lot, partial areas of a perforated surface resemble either a terrestrial scholar’s rock or celestial meteorite. Admired in China for their strange and otherworldly qualities, scholar’s rocks are perceived as complex and elegant with patterns and textures that create an enticing surface. They are appreciated as a representation of the larger natural world and as part of the greater cosmic universe.

Fascinated with the cosmos, Tai believes in the importance of possessing a sophisticated understanding of the universe and developing a connection with existential matters, which ultimately will influence the progression of art. Just as the landscape paintings of the Song and Yuan dynasty were a representation of cosmology in their time, Tai endeavours to visualize an updated perspective of the cosmos in our contemporary era.

“Rethinking universal schema’s influence on art, and thoughtfully establish a worldly view concerned with topics of life’s existence, will not only expand the horizons of art, but will most certainly affect the compositions of future landscape paintings.” Tai Xiangzhou, 2014¹

¹Knowing Heaven and Earth through Observation: Chinese Ink Paintings by Tai Xiangzhou, Temporary Exhibitions Gallery of Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, Macau, China, 2014,  p.123