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Lot Essay
Born in the province of Guangdong in 1960, Wang Yancheng studies at the Shandong Fine Arts Academy between 1978 and 1981. He arrives in France in 1989 for the first time to pursue his artistic journey. During this period, Wang suffers from poverty and feels homesick in the French capital. He soon develops his own painterly practice and gets recognition from the art critics. From 1998, works by Wang Yancheng entered the most prestigious public collections such as the Beijing Fine Arts Museum, the Shenzhen Fine Arts Museum. He now lives between Paris and Beijing; He is appraised by both European and Asian collectors and represented by major art galleries in Paris.
Jeux immatériels (immaterial games) (Lot 213) is a perfect transitional work, as we still detect geometrical shapes, leaving a greater place to the colour itself, before the artist yields to complete abstraction.
In the preface of the catalogue of 2014 Wang Yancheng's exhibition at Gallery Louis Carré & Cie in Paris, Zhong Cheng underlines the ambivalence between the two modes of representation: 'Signs submerged within the abstract flow were sometimes overtly evocative of Chinese pottery. Perhaps, in Wang Yancheg's subconscious, their fragility reflected his attachment to the realm of the figurative: the dreaded shattering them while at the same time he craved to do so.'
In Entre Chien et Loup (Between Dusk and Dawn) (Lot 214), like in Jeux immateriels, Wang seeks to represent the fleeting moment where the material world escapes reality. Entre Chien et Loup describes this hanging moment when the world transitions to a mysterious area. Significantly the painting's title is a French expression, literally 'Between Dog and Wolf' relating to the wild animal realm in the forest. It designates the very moment between day and night when darkness makes it difficult to distinguish between the two animals, implying a sense of risk. Wang skillfully treats the canvas as a dreamy space, using abstraction as a means to explore beyond our world into unknown territories. The painting shows the artist's full mastery of abstraction.
Bernard Vasseur perfectly describes Wang's ambition: 'He works constantly to create new balances between different colours. He does not restrain himself by the decoration and the appearance of the piece, he brings us to the most fundamental point, the inside of 'things', as we are situated in the "big band", in the middle of a forceful tragedy with unpredictable outcomes, with anxiety of "black holes", whirlwinds and irregular quakes.'
Extracted from Edition Cercle d'Art, Collection Découvrons l'Art, Paris, France, 2010.
Jeux immatériels (immaterial games) (Lot 213) is a perfect transitional work, as we still detect geometrical shapes, leaving a greater place to the colour itself, before the artist yields to complete abstraction.
In the preface of the catalogue of 2014 Wang Yancheng's exhibition at Gallery Louis Carré & Cie in Paris, Zhong Cheng underlines the ambivalence between the two modes of representation: 'Signs submerged within the abstract flow were sometimes overtly evocative of Chinese pottery. Perhaps, in Wang Yancheg's subconscious, their fragility reflected his attachment to the realm of the figurative: the dreaded shattering them while at the same time he craved to do so.'
In Entre Chien et Loup (Between Dusk and Dawn) (Lot 214), like in Jeux immateriels, Wang seeks to represent the fleeting moment where the material world escapes reality. Entre Chien et Loup describes this hanging moment when the world transitions to a mysterious area. Significantly the painting's title is a French expression, literally 'Between Dog and Wolf' relating to the wild animal realm in the forest. It designates the very moment between day and night when darkness makes it difficult to distinguish between the two animals, implying a sense of risk. Wang skillfully treats the canvas as a dreamy space, using abstraction as a means to explore beyond our world into unknown territories. The painting shows the artist's full mastery of abstraction.
Bernard Vasseur perfectly describes Wang's ambition: 'He works constantly to create new balances between different colours. He does not restrain himself by the decoration and the appearance of the piece, he brings us to the most fundamental point, the inside of 'things', as we are situated in the "big band", in the middle of a forceful tragedy with unpredictable outcomes, with anxiety of "black holes", whirlwinds and irregular quakes.'
Extracted from Edition Cercle d'Art, Collection Découvrons l'Art, Paris, France, 2010.