Page 224 - Christie's Asia Week March 2024 Chinese Art

Property from a Private Collection, London
ⱷ1115
A TALL PETRIFIED WOOD 'SCHOLAR'S
ROCK'
63 in. (160 cm.) high, rootwood stand
$10,000-15,000
PROVENANCE:
Private collection, London.
LITERATURE:
M. Flacks, Contemplating Rocks, London, 2013, pp. 66-7, and 180.
太湖⊅ϭ
Ϝ源
і敦私́珍藏
֨ḛ
馬科斯g弗拉Գ斯, ǗContemplating Rocksǘ, і敦, 2013年, 頁 66 7,
及180

Property from a Private Collection, London
ⱷ1116
LIU DAN (B. 1953)
Rock
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink on paper
72 1∕8 x 39 7∕8 in. (183 x 101 cm.)
With one seal of the artist
Executed in 2006
$80,000-120,000
PROVENANCE:
The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, 2007.

劉丹（1953年生）
雅⊅
水ખ紙本 鏡框 ̣ǔǔՍ年η
鈐印：劉丹̃印
Ϝ源
中४瓷器Ռ司，紐☼，2007年

In the tradition of rock collecting and connoisseurship in
China, rocks have long been viewed as microcosms of the
universe that invite contemplation. Meticulously rendered
with a sense of heightened hyperrealism, Rock unfolds as
an intimate portrait of a slender scholar’s rock, with jagged
peaks and angled crags rising from the abyss. Liu Dan
transforms the rock's textured surfaces into a gateway to an
imaginary world.

The art of Liu Dan is deeply rooted in the classical tradition
of Chinese ink painting, and yet he approaches the
medium with a distinctively contemporary perspective. His
fascination with the structural essences of objects prompts
him to extract the rock from its original context, thereby
making it simultaneously familiar and strange. Through the
act of decontextualization and magnification to the extreme,
Liu Dan ventures beyond narrative constraints in pursuit of a
pure visual experience.

1115 (another view) 1115
1116