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Lot Essay
"In my opinion, the most important aspect of painting is not the act of painting, but to search for and understand the meaning of life through painting, to record the life experience and my own reflection, and to inspire the prospect of one's life." - Hsiao Chin
Hsiao Chin was born into a prestigious family in Shanghai in 1935. His father, Hsiao Yu-mei, was a central figure in the modern history of music in China. In 1955, Hsiao Chin founded the first Chinese abstract painting group, the Eastern Art Group, in Taipei. In 1956, he received a scholarship from the Spanish government to further his studies in Europe. He resided and painted in Barcelona, Milan, New York, Paris, London, Germany and so on. Profound sadness caused by the loss of close family members throughout his childhood, adolescence and old age, stimulated Hsiao's curiosity to explore the unknown realms of Zen, Taoism and Western Mysticism. Art became a way of searching for the meaning of life. In 1961, immersing himself in Taoism, Hsiao abandoned oil paint and began painting in ink and gouache. He attempted to create a sense of emptiness and to capture the spiritual- spatial arrangement unique to Chinese art by contrasting fluid and fixed forms.
The paintings that Hsiao created in 1962 include Quando cambia il nulla (When it changes nothing) (Lot 240), Allay (Lot 243), Huen-Tuen (Opening of Chaos) (Lot 241), Retract (Lot242) and Yen (Solemnity) (Lot 244). Hsiao uses a limited range of colours and basic geometric forms to represent the infiniteness of the universe. A minimal style in both paintings, skilfully combined with the sharp contrast between colours and shapes, elevates the conflict expressed in the works. The simple, compact and asymmetric composition of the works renders a kind of beauty that is fully refined and sublime. Such simple and modest representation of beauty is rooted from the philosophical thoughts of Zen in the East. (A Journey Back to the Root: Hsiao Chin 1954-2004, Guangdong Museum of Art, p. 14). This kind of expression is embedded in Zen thinking about the universe: every phenomenon perceived by the mind can be transformed from the complicated to the simple. In the Edo Period, Zeng-ga painter Gibon Sengai expressed the vocabulary of the Zen world with minimalist configurations of Circle, Triangle and Square. The Zen spirit of searching for the core resonates with Kazimir Malevich's Suprematism. Malevich reduces painting to a "Pure Language" in which he neither narrates nor critiques society. Neither does he pay homage to traditional types of painting such as landscape and still life, which convey the inner spirit. Through the changing combinations of colours, forms and lines, Hsiao's abstract cosmic paintings construct the different stages of his creative and spiritual mind.
Hsiao Chin was born into a prestigious family in Shanghai in 1935. His father, Hsiao Yu-mei, was a central figure in the modern history of music in China. In 1955, Hsiao Chin founded the first Chinese abstract painting group, the Eastern Art Group, in Taipei. In 1956, he received a scholarship from the Spanish government to further his studies in Europe. He resided and painted in Barcelona, Milan, New York, Paris, London, Germany and so on. Profound sadness caused by the loss of close family members throughout his childhood, adolescence and old age, stimulated Hsiao's curiosity to explore the unknown realms of Zen, Taoism and Western Mysticism. Art became a way of searching for the meaning of life. In 1961, immersing himself in Taoism, Hsiao abandoned oil paint and began painting in ink and gouache. He attempted to create a sense of emptiness and to capture the spiritual- spatial arrangement unique to Chinese art by contrasting fluid and fixed forms.
The paintings that Hsiao created in 1962 include Quando cambia il nulla (When it changes nothing) (Lot 240), Allay (Lot 243), Huen-Tuen (Opening of Chaos) (Lot 241), Retract (Lot242) and Yen (Solemnity) (Lot 244). Hsiao uses a limited range of colours and basic geometric forms to represent the infiniteness of the universe. A minimal style in both paintings, skilfully combined with the sharp contrast between colours and shapes, elevates the conflict expressed in the works. The simple, compact and asymmetric composition of the works renders a kind of beauty that is fully refined and sublime. Such simple and modest representation of beauty is rooted from the philosophical thoughts of Zen in the East. (A Journey Back to the Root: Hsiao Chin 1954-2004, Guangdong Museum of Art, p. 14). This kind of expression is embedded in Zen thinking about the universe: every phenomenon perceived by the mind can be transformed from the complicated to the simple. In the Edo Period, Zeng-ga painter Gibon Sengai expressed the vocabulary of the Zen world with minimalist configurations of Circle, Triangle and Square. The Zen spirit of searching for the core resonates with Kazimir Malevich's Suprematism. Malevich reduces painting to a "Pure Language" in which he neither narrates nor critiques society. Neither does he pay homage to traditional types of painting such as landscape and still life, which convey the inner spirit. Through the changing combinations of colours, forms and lines, Hsiao's abstract cosmic paintings construct the different stages of his creative and spiritual mind.