ZHONG CHENG

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    WANG PANYOUN (1912-2017)

    Snow of My Hometown

    1991

    Oil on Canvas
    60 x 73 cm

    Estimate TWD 2,700,000-3,200,000
    USD 36,400-114,300
    HKD 0-0

    Hammer Price TWD 0
    USD 0
    HKD 0

Provenance:

Illustrated: "Paintings By Wang Pan Youn," The Eslite Corporation, Taipei Taiwan, 1991, Page 146

Exhibition:"The Solo Exhibition of Wang Panyoun," Taipei Taiwan, Eslite Gallery, January 1st - February 23rd, 1992

Exposition:The work comes with a publication titled "Painting By Wang Pan Youn’

Snow of My Hometown, was painted in 1991 when Wang Panyuan has just arrived in Yilan, Taiwan after the war. His poetic paintings often exemplifies characteristics of purity, straightforwardness and tranquility. Liao Xin-Tian, the curator of the National Museum of History, gave him high praises for his noble artistic connotations. He believes that Wang’s paintings have the same precision in light and colors as Casper Friedrich, the renowned landscape painter of the 19th century; and Wang also retains the techniques of British painter William Turner in conquering nature’s wildness, furthermore, he possesses French Impressionist painter Claud Monet’s sensitivity to the changes in nature’s colors. 

 

The following painting portrays a serene winter scenery, where the artist expressively renders the falling of snowflakes using vertical and gentle brushstrokes. On the left top corner of the work, we see warm yellow hues taking over the sky, suggesting a ray of sunlight on a cold winter morning. In direct contrast, different shades of green echoes throughout the whole painting, hinting at a shapeless but vigorous forest. In the foreground are three small houses with rooftops covered in heavy layers of snow. If these houses represents people, and the houses’ facades are faces, then their expressions are hidden behind layers and layers of sorrows. Wang Panyuan has encountered both joy and bitterness of the world, yet he has always felt lonely in life.

 

Lin Man-Li, the chairman of the National Culture and Art Foundation once said, “Wang Panyuan’s painting style reduces figurative forms into abstract idea and spirits. However, it also embodies life, the artist’s compassion for life, and his pursuit of philosophy. His work introspect and internalize the self in a very pure manner. Although it is often presented with characteristics of emptiness, faint, and distant connotations, the viewers is still able feel the richness of the work from within.” 

 

Landscape scenery has always been a recurring subject in Wang Pangyuan’s work. His painting invites the viewers to leave their reality behind, and enter a surreal world he has shaped. In 1965, Wang wrote poetry to express his life’s sadness, “Spring is exhausted and flower is old, the lover does not return. Snow flew in the lone sky, I wish to ride the wind home, fearless of the cold. As a hero, on a famous horse, arriving at a royal hut. Where did I come from, a famous household, no father, no mother, from the west, and sun sets in the East.” Through these lines details of the artist’s personal life is revealed, it portrays a mental image of the artist’s inner world, a precarious winter scenery,where snow and wind can wash away the misery of his past.

 

Wang Panyuan’s paintings are often poetic and expressive, he achieve this by incorporating negative space, the artist once said “I like to leave blank spaces in my painting. Similar to how I like to leave certain things unsaid when I am talking to people. I like to think and reflect rather than compete” As an introvert, Wang Panyuan finds peace when he is alone, and his inspirations mostly derived from his personal experiences. The external world may have caused him suffering, however in his inner world he laid out a path that belonged solely to him, untainted by the outside and of absolute clarity. Although his works is seemingly uncomplicated, it’s pure sincere expression is what resonates with his viewers.  

 

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