Lot Essay
By 1950s, Lee Man Fong has reached one of his high point in his artistic career; he is widely recognised as one of the leading artist in Indonesia and his works were demonstrating the artist's matured mastery over the techniques.
The present lot best exemplified the life long pursuit of Man Fong, as he was acutely conscious of his Chinese root and always strive to demonstrate that identity through the western painting techniques; with Cockerel fight, the composition is reminiscent of Chinese landscape painting but the perspective and the usage of the contrast of light and shadow are clearly a result of his western influence. An art critic has once commented "... , his lines were like the rays of the sparkling sun bouncing off a tropical landscape. The artist's legendary encounters, the influence from traditional Chinese culture and the European classical training were all evident on his canvases."
The thirteen people in Cockerel fight demonstrates an interesting sense of intimacy which is arguably uncommon in some of the other works of comparable size and subject-matter. Works like the Bali life are undoubtedly magnificent in terms of the artist's skill; however one often find that the Balinese weavers, vegetable vendors or the dancers are separated from one another in the composition in a sense that all would be concentrating in their own activities with the absence of any communication among themselves.
In the present lot, however, there's a single activity which binds the crowd. One notes the focusing concentration of the people which also lure the onlookers of the picture to the fight of the cocks.
The present lot best exemplified the life long pursuit of Man Fong, as he was acutely conscious of his Chinese root and always strive to demonstrate that identity through the western painting techniques; with Cockerel fight, the composition is reminiscent of Chinese landscape painting but the perspective and the usage of the contrast of light and shadow are clearly a result of his western influence. An art critic has once commented "... , his lines were like the rays of the sparkling sun bouncing off a tropical landscape. The artist's legendary encounters, the influence from traditional Chinese culture and the European classical training were all evident on his canvases."
The thirteen people in Cockerel fight demonstrates an interesting sense of intimacy which is arguably uncommon in some of the other works of comparable size and subject-matter. Works like the Bali life are undoubtedly magnificent in terms of the artist's skill; however one often find that the Balinese weavers, vegetable vendors or the dancers are separated from one another in the composition in a sense that all would be concentrating in their own activities with the absence of any communication among themselves.
In the present lot, however, there's a single activity which binds the crowd. One notes the focusing concentration of the people which also lure the onlookers of the picture to the fight of the cocks.