Lot 551: PANG XUN QIN

PANG XUN QIN
(1906-1985)
Herbaceous Plants
signed 'Qin' in Chinese (on reverse)
oil on canvas
55.5 x 46 cm. (21 3/4 x 18 in.)
Painted in 1975

People's Fine Arts Publishing House., Art of Pang Xunqin, Beijing, China, 1998, p. 65. (illustrated)

Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2005, Lot 212
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

"At one time, I was in a flower shop at Chongwenmen and found a bunch of little flowers in a vase placed on the floor. I bought them for few coins. I painted to enlarge them and completed it without any alteration; I feel satisfied. That is Herbaceous Plants."
- Pang Xunqin
Painted in 1975, Pang Xunqin's Herbaceous Plants (Lot 551) was the artist's satisfying piece created during his living in Beijing. Viewers might be surprised to find that such a vibrant colored and energetic artwork was created by a veteran painter who had undergone the Sino-Japanese War and the civil war in China, and had suffered from a political injustice that has yet to be rehabilitated.
Aesthetic is Pang's primary artistic ideology. He had said, "As a painter, I am always expecting the viewers to be able to sense the aesthetic." In Herbaceous Plants, the protagonists are the ordinary little flowers that Pang declines to depict naturalistically; instead, he magnifies their natural beauty and vitality through stylish design and excellent composition. The result is making a silk purse out of a sow's ear, as the inconspicuous plants are transformed into amazingly attractive flowers.
In details, one will find Pang's brush-by-brush and complex yet regular color dots, a style of brush which was inspired by the late 19th century's Neo-impressionist "scientific" approach of the effects of light and ephemeral reality. Pang had assimilated the unique oil painting skills of the notable Pointillists: George Seurat, Maximilien Luce and Paul Signac. The rationale of Neo-impressionism is the optical theory of primary and complementary colors: A painter first dissects an object's various colors, and then applies brush by brush the multiple unmixed color dots to fabricate the object image on canvas. The color dots produce marvelous effects that get closer to the image of the ever-changing nature.
In the painting, Pang wittily repeats to use the main colors of the flowers as background, thereby enhancing the overall sense of three-dimensionality. He uses dots of white, light yellow, light green and mauve to depict the light color flowers, and uses dots of purple-red, purple-blue and lemon yellow to depict the rich color flowers. Then he divides the background into two: on the right using the hues of light color flowers: white, light yellow and green dots, whereas on the left using the blue, red, green and black dots. Blue and red are the primary colors that produce purple; green synchronizes the hue of leaves in the vase; and black is the contour line of flowers and leaves. Pang's mastery in the choice and combination of colors makes the painting devoid of complexity, and captures the changes in light reflected on the vase. The fabricated multiple colors enable the viewers to appreciate, from different angles and distances, the rich and harmonious blend of colors. Viewers are also able to realize Pang's bold yet lifelike brush that is imbued with vitality.
Pang's use of sharp contrast between bright, dark, rich and light tone, as well as vivid color changes is a breakthrough in the traditional literati's perception that rich color is inferior to the graceful light color but light color is inferior to the esteemed grey tone. Pang has practically exhibited that paintings using color contrast could still achieve harmonious beauty. Despite breaking the norm, he did not abandon all Chinese artistic concepts and skills. In the painting, the Western inspired brushwork and colors are going hand in hand with the Chinese- flower-painting-meticulous-brush, an evident that shows Pang's mastery in the application of both the Chinese and Western art.
The painter had once made a remark on his life: "During the twenty-three years, from 1949 to 1972, I had painted only five small oil paintings. Am I a small-painting-enthusiast? I am not. The fact was that my living place was too small to find even a two-metre-space, so I had to place the canvas on a chair and to paint by sitting on a tiny stool. Am I a flower-painting-enthusiast? Neither am I. I wanted to paint figures, but who would like to be my models? I wanted to paint landscape, but my condition and financial situation deprived me of roaming in mountains and seas. I was left with flowers: People picked me wildflowers; I even found dumped flowers in rubbish bins. I portray decaying flowers to become prettier, as I believe that life is going to get better." Pang's flower series is not only an expression of aesthetic, but also of his virtue of optimistic spirit in difficult times, his blending of the essence of the East and West, and his innovative spirit in artistic creation.