Liu Ye - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Wednesday, February 27, 2008 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Exhibited

    Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong

  • Catalogue Essay

    Liu Ye is a key figure in Contemporary Chinese art whose distinct style owes much to his travel and studies in Europe. Following his studies in the Netherlands, LiuYe channeled his energies into formulating his own pictorial language; unlike many of his contemporaries, Liu Ye’s work is highly internalised, drawing its inspiration from his own idiosyncratic psyche rather than cultural allusions. Although child-like, Liu Ye’s work is not naïve or innocent! Employing a surrealistic blend of fantasy and philosophy, his work features either legendary fairy tale-like creatures or delicate prepubescent girls contemplating Mondrian’s most significant canvases. The current lot is one such work, and it depicts a little girl actively studying a red, yellow and blue Mondrian. The Dutch master’s use of colour informs Liu Ye’s strong and vibrant palette which consists mainly of primary colours; his sense of composition, precise brushwork, preference for clean lines, and finely-tuned linear structure also owe much debt of inspiration to Mondrian.

180

Untitled #3

2003
Oil on canvas.
45 x 45 cm. (17 3/4 x 17 3/4 in).
Signed and dated ‘Ye 03 [in Chinese and English]’.

Estimate
£120,000 - 180,000 

Sold for £144,500

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

28 Feb 2008, 7pm
London