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Pioneers of Modernism: A Selection from The Scheeres Collection Sanyu Follow Nude signed 'Yu [in Chinese] SANYU' lower right ink and charcoal on paper 44.2 x 55.4 cm. (17 3/8 x 21 3/4 in.)
Provenance Private Collection, Paris Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1998 Literature Rita Wong, SANYU Catalogue Raisonne: Drawings and Watercolours , Taipei, 2014, no. D0043, electronic index p. 11 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Born in Sichuan in 1895, Sanyu was the youngest child in a wealthy family who owned a silk factory. As a young boy who trained in Chinese calligraphy, he was always encouraged to savour his love for art. After a trip to Japan in 1918 where he encountered Modern Western Art, he left Asia for Paris and its Avant-garde scene and arrived there in 1920. Once settled, unlike many of his contemporaries who studied at schools which taught the strict academic rules of painting, he chose to further his studies at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, a school dedicated to painting and sculpture free from academic constraint. It was there that he spent several years mastering the art of sketching. Sanyu soon became a familiar feature of Montparnasse. At the Académie, he befriended Alberto Giacometti and his fellow Parisian-Chinese artist Pang Xunqin, who recalls Picasso painting Sanyu’s portrait around that time. In 1929, Henri-Pierre-Roché, who had already supported the careers of Duchamp, Braque and Brancusi, agreed to be his dealer. It is in Sanyu’s drawings that we see his concept and experimentation in perspective. His love for photography is noticeably evident through the play of perspective, where he takes on the view of a wide-angle camera lens to accentuate the hips and thighs of his nudes. One of the artist’s most loyal and well-known supporters and friends, the celebrated poet Xu Zhimo, once said that his nudes had the ‘the thighs of the universe’. Having had years of rigorous practice in traditional Chinese calligraphy since a young age, Sanyu brilliantly incorporates the ink-wash technique into his nude drawings, evoking the beauty of the flesh. Moving away from the traditions of Western sketching through the use of charcoal and pen, Sanyu instead uses the rhythm of the calligraphy brush to create vividly subversive lines of the flesh, not only showing his ability to create flow and resilience in movement, but also demonstrating the simple yet exquisite qualities of Chinese ink painting. Read More Catalogue Essay 常玉1895年生於四川；一個擁有絲綢工廠的富裕家庭，是家中老么。 從小接受中國書法的訓練，家中總是鼓勵他去發展對藝術的熱愛。 常玉1918年至日本旅遊，在那裡他接觸了現代西方藝術，啟發他離開亞洲，前往巴黎；這個現代藝術的舞台。1920年常玉初抵巴黎時，不像同代的旅法畫家選擇正規學院派的美術學校就讀，他卻選擇了學風自由的「大茅屋學院」習畫，而且花了數年的時間於此練習素描。常玉很快的融入蒙帕納斯的藝術家群。 在大茅屋，他結識了阿爾伯托·賈克梅蒂和來自同鄉的藝術家龐薰琴，龐回憶當時畢加索曾經給常玉畫像的事。 1929年，亨利 - 皮埃爾·羅榭開始當起常玉的經紀人，羅榭曾經協助過為杜尚，布拉克和布朗庫西藝術推廣。 常玉的素描作品展現了對透視的概念與實驗。因為喜愛攝影，常玉便嘗試以攝影機的廣角鏡頭視角，誇大臀部與大腿的比例，他的好友徐志摩曾戲稱常玉畫的裸女是「宇宙大腿」。 幼時的書法訓練使得常玉於其素描上運用水墨來傳達人體之美，並顯得得心應手，書法的筆觸和運筆的節奏，創造出生動、且副有變化的線條，與铅筆或碳筆的筆觸絶然不同，不但能展現律動和韌性，演繹出簡單並典雅的中式美學。 Read More