Lot Essay
Taiwanese-born artist Yang Chi Hung was the first Chinese artist to exhibit at MOMA PS1, New York. He was also the recipient of the Outstanding Asian-American Artist Award. Since 1979, for nearly 40 years, Yang has resided in New York, fully absorbing the nutrients of Western contemporary art thought. A successor of the spirit of abstract expressionism, Yang's practice has gone through six periods of style variation in his creative career thus far. His piece from 2014, Leaping (Lot 452), was created at the height of his" Eastern Poetry" period — a period saturated with unaffected, lofty, and agile expressionism. For both the artist and the viewer, the significance of Leaping is that, even when seen after months or years, it is still bursting with boundless vitality that was imbued in the work when it was first created. With his art, Yang is responding to the philosophical concept of" the present moment in eternity."