Page 35 - September 20 2021 Chinese Works of Art Bonhams NYC

Cloudy mountains arise from the sides activating their kinetic The few scattered groups of trees are crisply detailed and highlighted
momentum, its useless to just converge the two sides together in white, bringing a closeness and intimacy to the painting that
contrasts with the grandeur of the vast, mist-shrouded cliffs.
Artists of the Qing dynasty who followed the Orthodox lineage
espoused by Dong Qichang would have had the ability to recall the Li- The soaring mountains are foreboding, but, the artist’s use of light
Guo monumental mode as a part of their broader artistic repertoire. endows the painting with depth. Near the center of the composition
a dark mass of rock anchors the cliff, and receding into the deep
Li Huayi’s Mountain Gorge (lot 128), was painted in the last decade of distance, the painting lightens, and although the sky is not visible to
the 20th century, and in it the artist condenses more than a thousand us, it is evident that a brighter atmosphere is ahead. The atmospheric
years of tradition. Li Huayi became fascinated with the Northern grandeur and varied brushstrokes are borrowed from the Li-Guo
Song Monumental style after viewing a Fan Kuan (active 990-1030) tradition, but the opaque coloring and the strong contrast of light and
landscape in Beijing in 1978. Although most of Li Huayi’s early artistic dark is more reminiscent of the paintings of Gong Xian (1618-1689).
training was in Western-style drawing, he began re-interpreting the
Li-Guo artistic idiom in 1992, after he had moved to the United States, Li Huayi paints landscapes that are drawn from centuries of artists who
and began studying art in San Francisco. preceded him, yet his creations are unique and timeless in their mood.
Classically inspired and grounded in traditional brush methods, his
Li Huayi creates his monumental landscapes with meticulous paintings are also unmistakably modern. His successful creations open
brushwork endowing the scene with a combination of power and a new avenue in the long tradition of Chinese ink landscape painting.
elegance. The precise strokes build the structure of precarious cliffs,
and the closely drawn lines bring a rhythmic vitality to the painting. The
daunting heights reach far beyond what the limits of the painting allow,
and the mountains’ true height is unknowable.

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