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"Cities are reality; all of China is a city under construction, and of course this influences me." —Liu Wei
The artist in his Beijing Studio. Liu Wei is one of China’s leading contemporary artists widely acclaimed for his diverse practices across painting, sculpture, installation and photography. Breaking away from a generation of artists who were subversively referencing politics, he forges a uniquely abstract style that alludes to his experiences in the chaos and disorder accompanying the ever-shifting material landscape.
A compelling example from the seminal Purple Air series, Purple Air IV-4 conveys a fragmented vision of a congested and gridded city. Evoking a rapidly rising cityscape, the work beckons the audiences to consider the constrained visual plane at the ground level amid towering vertices, or hidden structures in a city with much restricted mobility. The complex and varied human experiences within a vast and opaque space is articulated by this highly compressed composition of sharp and invasive lines and geometric shapes. The work conjures up a bizarre image of bustling metropolis that echoes Marco Polo’s description of cities as “fantastical, beguiling spaces where things are never as they seem.”
"[Beijing is] …possibly the greatest single work of man on the face of the earth." —Edmund N. Bacon
Crowded Beijing subway during rush hour. 
A man in a subway wearing a bag with slogans that encourages people to read more books, as playing with phones has become the most common way to kill time when commuting. Inspired by the City
Born in 1972, Liu Wei came of age during a period of rapid industrialisation in China, it was a destabilising time for the artist as ‘things were constantly changing, and nothing seemed stable.’i Executed in 2007, the sprawling urban landscape in this work subtly speaks to Beijing’s relentless ambition for change manifested in its rapid gentrification programs, which reached a climax in the run up to the 2008 Olympics as the host city embarked on a ‘national pride’ vanity project in an effort to present a more sophisticated image to an international audience.
The new CCTV building completed before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is jokingly known by locals as Big Shorts for its unconventional shape. There is brutal modernity to the systematic, grid-like composition - a perceptible homage to Gerhard Richter (see for example Lot 8 Abstraktes Bild (682-4)) , it also borrows from the flattened perspective of Chinese shanshui (mountain and water) paintings. The artist’s working method consists of first creating a design generated digitally on a computer then transposing the patterns onto canvas. This process of execution is a way for the artist to find a personal sense of order, still it resonates with the growing sense of social anxiety aggravated by the rapid development of technology. The work recalls his fellow abstract artist Jiang Zhi’s computer error paintings that expresses an obvious frustration with system malfunctions triggered by a minor gesture, but also questions the computer as a source of reliable information. Similarly, Liu Wei’s digitally executed lines resemble the saturation of data transmitted through the internet, probing into the increasingly needs for hyper productivity in our contemporary urban life dictated by connectivity and the many aspects of life legitimised by digital trails.
Lot 8, Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (682-4), 1988 
Qiu Ying, The Emperor Guangwu Fording a River, circa. 1534–42, Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo courtesy National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Purple Air comes from the East
In Purple Air IV-4, stacked columns rendered in black and white are punctuated by bands of yellow, blue, purple and red against a crimson red background, the enveloping hazy greyish air is suggestive of the capital’s poor air quality. But the series in fact has a more auspicious ring to it, emanating from the Chinese saying ‘purple air comes from the east’ (紫氣東來). In the artist’s own words: “In the Chinese classics, this idea of purple air refers to a state of haze, a lack of clarity, but actually full of vitality. There are so many problems, but it is still lovely.”ii Perhaps expressing a complicated sentiment towards the homeland, this work forges a link for the viewers to ruminate on the invisible truth beneath the rapidly transforming urban reality that is actually shaped by a hopeful vision for a better future.
Collector’s Digest
With an unparalleled and multifaceted oeuvre that remains highly sought after and revered throughout his career, Liu Wei’s unique visual language exudes an influence that confirms his position in the lexicon of Chinese contemporary art. In addition to exhibitions at both the 2005 Venice Biennale and the latest 2019 edition, and in prestigious institutions worldwide, recently at MoCA Cleveland (2020), Liu Wei’s works are also included in numerous museum collections, including the M+ Sigg Collection in Hong Kong, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, the Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
i Liu Wei quoted in Hans Ulrich Obrist, ‘Hans Ulrich Obrist: Interviews Liu Wei’, The China Interviews, March 2012, online.
ii Liu Wei, quoted in Jerome Sans, ‘Liu Wei, an interview’, China Talks, 2010, online.Provenance
Boers-Li Gallery - Universal Studios, Beijing
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Ж13
Purple Air IV-4
2007
signed and dated 'Liu Wei [in Chinese and Pinyin] 2007' on the reverse
oil on canvas
300 x 180 cm. (118 1/8 x 70 7/8 in.)
Painted in 2007.
Estimate
HK$1,600,000 - 3,000,000
€198,000-372,000
$205,000-385,000
Sold for HK$2,772,000
Charlotte Raybaud
Head of Evening Sale, 20th Century & Contemporary Art
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in Association with Poly Auction
Hong Kong Auction 3 December 2020
1
Salman Toor
Group Dance
Estimate HK$380,000 - 480,000
Sold for HK$4,032,000
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2
Emily Mae Smith
Dust
Estimate HK$200,000 - 300,000
Sold for HK$1,134,000
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3
Titus Kaphar
Well Kept
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$3,528,000
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4
Matthew Wong
River at Dusk
Estimate HK$7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for HK$37,760,000
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5
Yoshitomo Nara
Hothouse Doll
Estimate HK$50,000,000 - 70,000,000
Sold for HK$103,115,000
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6
Yoshitomo Nara
Untitled
Estimate HK$24,000,000 - 36,000,000
Sold for HK$29,290,000
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7
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Ancient Scientist
Estimate HK$50,000,000 - 70,000,000
Sold for HK$58,330,000
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8
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (682-4)
Estimate HK$20,000,000 - 30,000,000
Sold for HK$32,315,000
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9
Yayoi Kusama
INFINITY-NETS (QRTWE)
Estimate HK$15,000,000 - 20,000,000
Sold for HK$17,190,000
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10
Yayoi Kusama
Fruits [EPSOB]
Estimate HK$7,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for HK$12,350,000
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11
Zhou Chunya
The Flower in a Vase
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for HK$6,905,000
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12
Zhang Xiaogang
Fairy Tale
Estimate HK$6,500,000 - 8,500,000
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13
Liu Wei
Purple Air IV-4
Estimate HK$1,600,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$2,772,000
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14
Yue Minjun
Untitled
Estimate HK$2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$2,016,000
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15
KAWS
UNTITLED
Estimate HK$3,800,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for HK$4,662,000
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16
Bernard Frize
Wir
Estimate HK$1,000,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for HK$2,142,000
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17
Michael Craig-Martin
REAL
Estimate HK$600,000 - 800,000
Sold for HK$756,000
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18
KAWS
UNTITLED
Estimate HK$3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for HK$4,788,000
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19
Christine Ay Tjoe
When Black and Red Could Hardly be a Circle
Estimate HK$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for HK$4,788,000
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20
Zao Wou-Ki
12.2.69
Estimate HK$6,500,000 - 8,500,000
Sold for HK$13,560,000
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21
Zao Wou-Ki
14.06.73
Estimate HK$10,000,000 - 16,000,000
Sold for HK$12,350,000
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22
Chu Teh-Chun
Composition No. 65
Estimate HK$15,000,000 - 20,000,000
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23
Chu Teh-Chun
Le 30 mars 1981
Estimate HK$5,500,000 - 7,500,000
Sold for HK$7,752,000
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24
Lalan
Efter Regnen (After the Rain)
Estimate HK$750,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for HK$2,016,000
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25
Cai Guo-Qiang
Two Wandering Tigers
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for HK$4,410,000
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26
Li Chen
Peony
Estimate HK$1,000,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for HK$2,394,000
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27
Banksy
Monkey Detonator
Estimate HK$3,800,000 - 4,800,000
Sold for HK$5,292,000
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28
On Kawara
NOV.25, 1989
Estimate HK$2,600,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for HK$3,276,000
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29
Lucas Arruda
Untitled
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$3,780,000
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30
Tomoo Gokita
Trust Us
Estimate HK$2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$2,520,000
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31
Fernando Botero
The Beach
Estimate HK$2,400,000 - 3,200,000
Sold for HK$2,772,000
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32
This lot is no longer available.