Wu Deng-yi’s contemporary color ink art, Hong Kong Poly 2021 Autumn Auction sold at a high price

“Pretty and smart, livable and travelable” Wu Deng-yi’s contemporary color ink art, ‘Sailing in River Gorge’and‘Delicate And Beautiful Mountain’Hong Kong Poly 2021 Autumn Auction sold at a high price

撰文：張家馨

At the end of 2021, the works of Wu Deng-yi, a contemporary Taiwanese master of color and ink, came to the art market. Two classic paintings of the artist 《Delicate And Beautiful Mountain Surrounded by Clouds》and 《 Sailing in River Gorge 》 were listed in the Hong Kong Poly 2021 Autumn Auction, and they have a very eyecatching price. Transaction grades. Among them, 《Delicate And Beautiful Mountain Surrounded by Clouds》had an initial estimated price of HK$250,000 to 350,000, and was finally sold at HK$456,000 (approximately NT$1.62 million) and《 Sailing in River Gorge 》finally fell under the hammer at a high price of 696,000 Hong Kong dollars (approximately NT$2.47 million). Both works were sold at a price exceeding the estimated price. Such a good result shows that the artist’s work has become a hot target in the market, and it has established Wu Deng-yi’s position in the art world.

《Sailing in River Gorge 》132.5 x 66.5 cm  2020  Ink & Color on Paper

《 Sailing in River Gorge 》finally fell under the hammer at a high price of 696,000 Hong Kong dollars

New direction of contemporary color ink – Wu Deng-yi

Wu Deng-yi was born in Nantou, Taiwan in 1951. He graduated from the Fine Arts Research Institute of Taiwan Normal University. He is currently the dean of the Contemporary Color Ink Painting Academy of the Chinese Cultural Heritage Association. He is known as an influential contemporary color ink artist. He devoted nearly sixty years to painting research and creation. In 1973, he won the first prize in Lu Guang Exhibition of Contemporary Famous Artists of the Republic of China. In 2008, he was awarded the “Most Influential Chinese Artist of Contemporary Art”. In 2020, the Wu Dengyi Art Museum located in Taipei 101, a landmark in Taiwan, will officially open to the public at home and abroad. The art museum is planned and designed according to international standards and named after Mr. Wu Deng-yi.
The works are based on the fine art works created by Wu Deng-yi over the years. It provides the public with the best art viewing environment and the most valuable art creations on the clouds of Taipei. It has become the highest in Taiwan. palace of art. Wu Deng-yi’s works are headed by contemporary color ink, and his creative styles are rich and diverse, and are displayed in color ink creation with diverse brush and ink techniques. And the six painting methods mentioned in the book 《Ancient Paintings Record》by Xie He of the Nanqi Dynasty as the primary direction of the artist’s painting creation. At the same time, Western aesthetic techniques Chiaroscuro (light and dark contrast method), Sfumato (smudge painting method) and Unione (unification method) are also integrated into the creation. He combines the spirit of oriental brush and ink with the cultivation of western aesthetics, and presents a new pattern of contemporary color ink art in the traditional ink rhyme.

Combination of Chinese and Western, bold breakthrough, Wu Deng-yi’s unique painting style

Wu Deng-yi’s color ink works can be divided into two main aspects. On the one hand, he masters the physical principles and essence of traditional figurative and realistic painting, enters the ultimate microscopic state, and shows a solid poetic realism skill; on the other hand, he adopts innovative techniques in color and composition The spirituality of abstract expression is injected into the surface, thus endowing the work with a sense of the times and contemporaneity. However, regardless of the creative context of the former or the latter, the technique is freely retractable and flowing, showing the subtlety and delicacy hidden in the artist’s bold and unrestrained creation. In Wu Deng-yi’s creations, we can also see the blending and use of Chinese and Western media and techniques. The classic Chinese ink brushwork combines Western color spirit and abstract concepts, boldly breaks through the traditional context in the solid ink and wash background, and replaces it with natural effects. The traces carved with the pen make Mr. Wu’s color ink works present a natural aura, creating a new height of contemporary color ink.

《Delicate And Beautiful Mountain Surrounded by Clouds》66.7×66.7cm   2020  Ink & Color on Paper

《Delicate And Beautiful Mountain Surrounded by Clouds》finally sold at HK$456,000

In Mr. Wu Deng-yi’s new work《Vague in Shade, The Awareness in Mind》, in the overall composition and abstract freehand space management, there are many experimental innovations in color and composition techniques. Pre-Qin and Laozi’s “Tao Te Ching”: “Tao is a thing, only vague and trance; flickering and flickering, there are images in it; flickering and flickering, there are objects in it.” The artist skillfully uses ink stains and hazy white the water extensions are superimposed and infiltrated to form a natural texture with rich shades and shades, just like the state of the water surface that is both moving and still, in order to borrow the Taoist mainstream thinking that all things are not fixed and fixed, and the constant shape respects one. It is said to be in a trance. However, the truth is hidden in it, and all changes should be unchanged, so it is said that “The Awareness in Mind”. Mr. Wu Deng-yi used ink and halo, dyed with water and rubbed with stains to create symbols that are both dynamic and static, which makes the work present a strong visual abstraction and contemporary context, which is Mr. Wu’s contemporary abstract works. classic work.