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Lot Essay
As a Chinese artist living in the Southeast Asian region, Lee Man Fong's subjects range from traditional themes favoured by Chinese artists to vistas of Bali life to a myriad of pictures of doves, goldfish, horses, buffalos and so forth, of which the animal-loving Lee was greatly enamoured with.
A supremely rare early work, Rooster and Hen (Lot 458) is a picture complete unto itself, with its evocation of blissful couple hood. Many of Lee Man Fong's early creations such as Rooster and Hen bear a Chinese accent with brushstrokes that are gestural and reminiscent of expressive Chinese ink works, demonstrating that the artist was acutely conscious of his Chinese origins.
Lee Man Fong first experimented with Eastern-style oil painting at the age of twenty five in 1937 and decisively committed himself to the incorporation of eastern elements in his paintings in the 1940s. In this regard, Lee Man Fong was the best embodiment of a progressive Chinese painter, ever aware of the pervasive influence of Chinese cultural traditions and a distinct Chinese worldview on his art but always seeking to adapt his art to the sensibilities of the contemporary world.
One of the painter's favourite animal painting subjects, the goldfish is a Chinese cultural symbol of wealth and abundance and celebrated as one of its most important animal symbols. Eight Goldfish (Lot 459) is distinguished by the virtuosic and gestural brushwork on each of the goldfish. Composed of nothing more than a few deftly placed and well-executed brushstrokes in the xieyi free-hand style, each goldfish is a mark of the idealized abstract quality of the Chinese brush skilfully rendered by the painter in oil. Eight Goldfish contrasts with the later Sepasang Ikan Mas Koki (Two Goldfish) (Lot 460) which has been executed in a more naturalistic style, along with Two Doves (Lot 461) and Cockatoos (Lot 462), both works which represent the innovation that Lee Man Fong pioneered with the transference of Chinese ink aesthetics onto oil painting.
A supremely rare early work, Rooster and Hen (Lot 458) is a picture complete unto itself, with its evocation of blissful couple hood. Many of Lee Man Fong's early creations such as Rooster and Hen bear a Chinese accent with brushstrokes that are gestural and reminiscent of expressive Chinese ink works, demonstrating that the artist was acutely conscious of his Chinese origins.
Lee Man Fong first experimented with Eastern-style oil painting at the age of twenty five in 1937 and decisively committed himself to the incorporation of eastern elements in his paintings in the 1940s. In this regard, Lee Man Fong was the best embodiment of a progressive Chinese painter, ever aware of the pervasive influence of Chinese cultural traditions and a distinct Chinese worldview on his art but always seeking to adapt his art to the sensibilities of the contemporary world.
One of the painter's favourite animal painting subjects, the goldfish is a Chinese cultural symbol of wealth and abundance and celebrated as one of its most important animal symbols. Eight Goldfish (Lot 459) is distinguished by the virtuosic and gestural brushwork on each of the goldfish. Composed of nothing more than a few deftly placed and well-executed brushstrokes in the xieyi free-hand style, each goldfish is a mark of the idealized abstract quality of the Chinese brush skilfully rendered by the painter in oil. Eight Goldfish contrasts with the later Sepasang Ikan Mas Koki (Two Goldfish) (Lot 460) which has been executed in a more naturalistic style, along with Two Doves (Lot 461) and Cockatoos (Lot 462), both works which represent the innovation that Lee Man Fong pioneered with the transference of Chinese ink aesthetics onto oil painting.