.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Liu Kang was a major pioneer in the development of the 'Nanyang style' of 20th Century Singapore art, alongside Cheong Soo Pieng, Chen Wen Hsi and Chen Chong Swee - all of whom, like Liu, were first generation migrants from China. The visual style developed by this quartet was founded on traditional Chinese painting and modern Paris aesthetics, but primarily reflected Southeast Asian themes and landscapes.
Liu Kang was born in Fujian but spent his early years in Malaya where his father was a rubber merchant. He returned to China for his education, and enrolled at the Shanghai College of Fine Arts, later renamed the Xinhua Art Academy which was also attended by Nanyang school counterpart Cheong Soo Pieng. Shanghai was strongly influenced by Western modernism during the 1920s and 1930s, the critical period where Liu was developing his personal style. Liu Kang continued his art education in Paris at the Academie de Grande Chaumiere from 1929 to 1933, where he was drawn to post-impressionists such as Cezanne, Matisse, Gaugin and Van Gogh, masters whose bold brush handling and compositional style strongly influenced his own works.
View of Arab Street (Lot 123) is one of the largest and most characteristic Liu Kang works to be offered at auction to date. Within this strongly executed street scene, we can observe the artist's typical thick black outlines and dense layers of colors, forming the mosques in the background and shophouses in the foreground. Like many other Liu Kang landscape works, the figures are kept small and indistinct so as not to distract visual attention from the overall panorama. Apart from the strength and dynamism of the visuals and color palette, Liu's heavy brushwork also imparts a sense of rhythmic texture to the pictorial plane.
Painted in 1962, a decade after the historic Bali trip made by the Nanyang school pioneers, View of Arab Street reflects Liu's Nanyang style in full maturity. View of Arab Street was originally retained by the artist in his personal collection for over ten years following its execution, before being acquired by the present owner alongside other significant artworks by Liu Kang.
Liu Kang was a major pioneer in the development of the 'Nanyang style' of 20th Century Singapore art, alongside Cheong Soo Pieng, Chen Wen Hsi and Chen Chong Swee - all of whom, like Liu, were first generation migrants from China. The visual style developed by this quartet was founded on traditional Chinese painting and modern Paris aesthetics, but primarily reflected Southeast Asian themes and landscapes.
Liu Kang was born in Fujian but spent his early years in Malaya where his father was a rubber merchant. He returned to China for his education, and enrolled at the Shanghai College of Fine Arts, later renamed the Xinhua Art Academy which was also attended by Nanyang school counterpart Cheong Soo Pieng. Shanghai was strongly influenced by Western modernism during the 1920s and 1930s, the critical period where Liu was developing his personal style. Liu Kang continued his art education in Paris at the Academie de Grande Chaumiere from 1929 to 1933, where he was drawn to post-impressionists such as Cezanne, Matisse, Gaugin and Van Gogh, masters whose bold brush handling and compositional style strongly influenced his own works.
View of Arab Street is one of the largest and most characteristic Liu Kang works to be offered at auction to date. Within this strongly executed street scene, we can observe the artist's typical thick black outlines and dense layers of colors, forming the mosques in the background and shophouses in the foreground. Like many other Liu Kang landscape works, the figures are kept small and indistinct so as not to distract visual attention from the overall panorama. Apart from the strength and dynamism of the visuals and color palette, Liu's heavy brushwork also imparts a sense of rhythmic texture to the pictorial plane.
Painted in 1962, a decade after the historic Bali trip made by the Nanyang school pioneers, View of Arab Street reflects Liu's Nanyang style in full maturity. View of Arab Street was originally retained by the artist in his personal collection for over ten years following its execution, before being acquired by the present owner alongside other significant artworks by Liu Kang.
Liu Kang was born in Fujian but spent his early years in Malaya where his father was a rubber merchant. He returned to China for his education, and enrolled at the Shanghai College of Fine Arts, later renamed the Xinhua Art Academy which was also attended by Nanyang school counterpart Cheong Soo Pieng. Shanghai was strongly influenced by Western modernism during the 1920s and 1930s, the critical period where Liu was developing his personal style. Liu Kang continued his art education in Paris at the Academie de Grande Chaumiere from 1929 to 1933, where he was drawn to post-impressionists such as Cezanne, Matisse, Gaugin and Van Gogh, masters whose bold brush handling and compositional style strongly influenced his own works.
View of Arab Street (Lot 123) is one of the largest and most characteristic Liu Kang works to be offered at auction to date. Within this strongly executed street scene, we can observe the artist's typical thick black outlines and dense layers of colors, forming the mosques in the background and shophouses in the foreground. Like many other Liu Kang landscape works, the figures are kept small and indistinct so as not to distract visual attention from the overall panorama. Apart from the strength and dynamism of the visuals and color palette, Liu's heavy brushwork also imparts a sense of rhythmic texture to the pictorial plane.
Painted in 1962, a decade after the historic Bali trip made by the Nanyang school pioneers, View of Arab Street reflects Liu's Nanyang style in full maturity. View of Arab Street was originally retained by the artist in his personal collection for over ten years following its execution, before being acquired by the present owner alongside other significant artworks by Liu Kang.
Liu Kang was a major pioneer in the development of the 'Nanyang style' of 20th Century Singapore art, alongside Cheong Soo Pieng, Chen Wen Hsi and Chen Chong Swee - all of whom, like Liu, were first generation migrants from China. The visual style developed by this quartet was founded on traditional Chinese painting and modern Paris aesthetics, but primarily reflected Southeast Asian themes and landscapes.
Liu Kang was born in Fujian but spent his early years in Malaya where his father was a rubber merchant. He returned to China for his education, and enrolled at the Shanghai College of Fine Arts, later renamed the Xinhua Art Academy which was also attended by Nanyang school counterpart Cheong Soo Pieng. Shanghai was strongly influenced by Western modernism during the 1920s and 1930s, the critical period where Liu was developing his personal style. Liu Kang continued his art education in Paris at the Academie de Grande Chaumiere from 1929 to 1933, where he was drawn to post-impressionists such as Cezanne, Matisse, Gaugin and Van Gogh, masters whose bold brush handling and compositional style strongly influenced his own works.
View of Arab Street is one of the largest and most characteristic Liu Kang works to be offered at auction to date. Within this strongly executed street scene, we can observe the artist's typical thick black outlines and dense layers of colors, forming the mosques in the background and shophouses in the foreground. Like many other Liu Kang landscape works, the figures are kept small and indistinct so as not to distract visual attention from the overall panorama. Apart from the strength and dynamism of the visuals and color palette, Liu's heavy brushwork also imparts a sense of rhythmic texture to the pictorial plane.
Painted in 1962, a decade after the historic Bali trip made by the Nanyang school pioneers, View of Arab Street reflects Liu's Nanyang style in full maturity. View of Arab Street was originally retained by the artist in his personal collection for over ten years following its execution, before being acquired by the present owner alongside other significant artworks by Liu Kang.