Lot 46: Wang Tiande , Digital No. 06-HL08 xuan paper, Chinese ink on paper, burn marks

signed in Pinyin and Chinese and dated 2006 xuan paper, Chinese ink on paper, burn marks

13 by 166 1/8 in. 32.8 by 422 cm.

Christoph Mao, Made by Tiande II, New York, 2007, pp.42-43, illustrated in color

Chambers Fine Art, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Wang Tiande, born in Shanghai in 1960, studied traditional ink painting first at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1981, and then at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, now called the China Academy of Fine Arts. Unlike many other artists who paint traditionally, however, Wang has seen fit to update the legacy of ink painting by introducing new techniques: among the most interesting of his methods is the burning of paper to create calligraphy and landscape designs on one sheet of paper, beneath which is a second sheet of paper, untouched by burns but upon which further calligraphy and landscape imagery have been painted. The control of Wang's burn marks is more tentative than marks made with the brush, but the result is nonetheless striking in combination with the ghostly characters or pictures drawn on the sheet underneath. Together the papers offer a complex set of layered pictures, palimpsest-like in overall effect, but which may also be read independently. The visual pleasure derives from the interaction of layers and the emphasis or enhancement the burn marks provide.

Passionate about continuing the ink painting tradition, Wang's method lends considerable sophistication to his imagery - a conceptual shift that enhances rather than diminishes his appreciation of the medium. An example from the Digital series, Digital No. 06-HL08 (2006, Lot 46) is a lengthy horizontal scroll of unusually attenuated dimensions (33 by 422 centimeters). On the top sheet of Xuan paper, the artist has burned into the paper traditional imagery of mountains, trees, and small houses; the second sheet beneath offers both calligraphy and landscape imagery - thick-set characters alongside mountains and trees - which are clearly visible through the transparent foremost sheet. The lengthy scroll suggests a walk across a mountainous landscape whose wildness is kept in check by the simple houses that indicate human presence. It is a strikingly beautiful painting made by a man who has asserted, "Calligraphy is the essence of Chinese art."

Given the long and distinguished history of Chinese ink painting and calligraphy, it is no small feat to create new imageries and methodologies. Yet this is among Wang's achievements. His concept sustains relations with the art that preceded it, even as it adds something current and unexpected to techniques established over time. There is a mysterious elemental quality to the burned paper works that seems to reference directly the passage of time and the materiality of the physical object that is easy to overlook in more traditional works.

Wang's earlier works, such as the Untitled circular paintings completed in 1995 (Lot 47), confirm the persistently exploratory cast of artist's mind. One, executed entirely in black ink and wash, looks virtually abstract, while the other, with characters on the left and architectural elements at the base of the composition, appears a meditation on traditional aspects of Chinese culture. Together, the pair of paintings seems an exquisite essay on the qualities of Chinese calligraphy and painting that remain important in the ink tradition, a tradition whose achievements Wang both recapitulates and transforms.

-Jonathan Goodman