Lot 669: HSIUNG PING-MING (XIONG BINGMING)

HSIUNG PING-MING (XIONG BINGMING) 1922-2002 A COW LOWERING ITS HEAD marked with the artist's seal and a Landowski Fondeur stamp and dated 1990 (lower back) Edition 3/8 Executed in 1990 bronze sculpture 22 by 48 by 20 cm.; 8 5/8 by 18 7/8 by 7 7/8 in.

Contemporary Chinese Art Collection No. 6: Hsiung Ping-Ming, Taiwan, 1999, Mountain Art Publishing, p.71

Private Asian Collection

Hsiung Ping-Ming received his artistic training in France on a government scholarship in 1947. A philosopher by training, Hsiung created works that manifest deep wisdom. While he preferred to use oxen as his subjects—whether with their heads lowered or glancing back, lying on their backs or kneeling on the ground—these bronze sculptures are spirited and vivid, despite being thin and muscular rather than rotund. The sculptures carry many traces of the blade actually stamping, hammering, chiseling, peeling, and moulding uneven muscles and skin surfaces, suggesting that despite suffering hardships, the oxen still stubbornly thrive. In this epitome of agrarian society, each ox sculpture is a symbol of Hsiung's undying love and longing for his motherland, suggestive of the bittersweet aesthetics in Victor Hugo's tragedies.