Passage Through the Great Threshold - 124

Since 1963, under the influence of Tibetan esoteric Buddhism and Hindu religious art, Hsiao Chin enhanced the result of colour scheme and geometric layout. Painted in the 1960s, L' infinto N°2 (Infinity N°2) and Untitled (Lots 327 and 329), with a style of hard edge painting, convey a serene and mysterious metaphysical meditation on the cosmos. In the former, the collision of colours creates a direct and dramatic composition that captures the conflicts of the image, as the painting encapsulates the realm of Zen in a direct and unaffected expression. The Edo period Zen monk and painter Sengai Gibon gave succinct expression to the world of Zen in Circle, Triangle, and Square. This artistic quest for the heart of things echoes Kazimir Malevich's Suprematism in essence. Passage through the Great Threshold – 124 (Lot 328) portrays the boundless cosmos as a mysterious, moving vastness of indigo blue, which spells the Zen understanding of the cosmos—that all things in the cosmos could be simplified and grasped in its purest form.