Lot 987: Hou Junming (Hou Chun-Ming) , B. 1963 House of Brilliance oil on cardboard

signed and dated 1994 in Chinese oil on cardboard

measurements note 315 by 200cm.; 124 by 78 3/4 in.

Inspired by the Chinese literary classic Sou Shen Ji (Search of the Superrnatural), Hou Junming completed his eighteen panel work House of Brilliance (Lot 987) in 1993 at the age of thirty-three. The work's brave, cynical and groundbreaking depiction of social culture immediately drew the attention of the recently liberated Taiwanese art world. The work was published the following year by China Times Publishing with accompanying essays by the famous Taiwanese art and culture critics Cai Kangyong, Chen Kehua, Huang Haiming and Lu Rongzhi. To commemorate the publication of the work, Hou produced a set of four small prints of his artwork (one of which was House of Brilliance) to accompany the book. Hou Junming was married in May 1995. At the wedding banquet, he gave the guests prints (measuring 64.5 by 29cm.) of House of Brilliance, with the traditionally inauspicious edition number of 444. A number of other details of the wedding ceremony challenged traditional Chinese custom; these included specifically mentioning many bad possible outcomes of the marriage on the invitation cover, deliberately choosing an unlucky time for the ceremony, and relentlessly commenting on the instability of marriage and the unreliability of love in contemporary society. Perhaps Hou's inauspicious acts tempted fate as the marriage did not last long; however the wedding itself in retrospect became a type of performance work and signified the start of his rise to prominence as an artist. House of Brilliance takes the format of a thank-you card from Hou and his wife to their wedding guests. The piece is accentuated by its bold black lines and the bright red ground. The work is also unique to the artist's oeuvre as it is a single edition work. The second work by Hou Junming in this auction is 4-Season Porno: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter (Lot 988). The work reflects the artist's life after he moved from Taipei to Miaoli. In the countryside, Hou left behind the urban subjects he had become familiar with, and instead became more interested in and more attracted by the subject of basic human nature and primitive desire. His works produced during his time in the countryside are his only works which have a close association with nature. The original print board of 4-Season Porno: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter has been destroyed; only four colour and one black-white edition have survived. From a controversial figure in the 1980s to a representative artist of contemporary Taiwan art in the 1990s, Hou Junming is considered by some critics as a modern master. His works are products of the conflicting forces in contemporary Taiwanese society, and provide commentary on the tradition, customs and culture of Taiwan. By using the form of woodblock printing, he continues the progression of this ancient tradition but in a contemporary light.