Lot 59: Hou Junming (Hou Chunming) , B. 1963 Qiang Li Gang Jiao (Tormented Love) mixed media on panel

dated 2003 mixed media on panel

58 1/4 by 22 in. 148 by 56 cm.

Acquired by the present owner directly from the artist

Taiwanese artist Hou Junming works with some of the more unsettling aspects of the new Asia. Overwhelmed by feminist thought in the mid-1980's, Hou created a large number of very strong wood block prints, his preferred medium, which addressed sexuality with deliberately perverse and violent imagery. At the same time, Hou has used allegory and abstract symbols to investigate cultural traditions of the past and their resonance in the present. These symbols often belong to Taiwanese folk culture, and even if Hou is not producing work for the common audience, his frequently lurid and confrontational imagery stems from the darker side of a populist philosophical underpinning.

In 1993 Hou visited Beijing and determined that Taiwan and China are simply different cultures, albeit cultures with fast-paced growth in common. Since that time he has used woodblock printing for its posterlike effect. In a recent large-scale woodblock work, Standing Dragon and Flying Phoenix (2007), Hou composed the pair of pictures by dividing each graphic image into thirty smaller blocks, which together comprise the grand whole.

One image features a dragon rising up and breaking free from a traditional pagoda structure, as a butterfly abandons its chrysalis. (The Chinese characters at top right may be translated as the title of the image.) Traditional Chinese roofs fall away at the top of the image, whence figures tumble head first; cracks below signify the impending destruction of the edifice. The Great Wall that is strung across the base of the image is an architectural icon representing the country's military defense. It guards tradition as it weaves back and forth from right to left but is no match for this vertically assertive dragon, a behemoth signifying the changes of the 21υst century. In the paired print, Hou presents a flying phoenix surrounded by winged figures that join the bird in its heavenward journey. Although perhaps coincidental, the image resonates with Christian apocalyptic iconography, in which the chosen ascend to heaven with Christ in his second coming; coincidence or not, Hou's meaning is similar. In some way the phoenix symbolizes redemption for its followers among the populace of the urban settings below. The predominate architectural structure at the base of this composition is the Forbidden City (complete with Mao's portrait at its entry); on the lower left, one sees a modern metropolis that seems to signify contemporary Beijing. Whether Hou intends a political message is unclear, but together these large-scale totemic images are a reflection upon historical change and transformation in the present era.

In Qiang Li Gang Jiao from 2003, Hou presents what seems from a distance a central figure with a giant head and tiny body. At closer range, the head dissolves into two cross-legged and interlocked seated figures, set against a decorative dark background. The principal large figure's lower body contains further small figures whose upward-reaching arms become tree branches supporting strangely mushroom-like foliage, a setting for what seem lovers above. The little legs of the large central figure are those of two smaller figures that support the whole of this complicated assortment of figures and forms. The black image with reddish-orange highlights is painted upon the pages of a yellow newspaper, which have been affixed to a canvas backing. The overall feeling is one of happiness and peaceful relations with the natural world, a world which the figures themselves compose. While Hou tends to focus on the darker side of life and people's baser instincts, the primitive energy here is positive and inviting, despite the picture's title, which may be translated as "Tormenting Love."

-Jonathan Goodman