Artist’s horses lead the auction charge
Print Edition
GALLOPING with the vigor of strong and simple brush strokes, the horses painted by late Chinese master Xu Beihong inspired his countrymen in wartime. Now they are fetching huge sums at auction.
Xu, who died in 1953, created horses that pulsated with beauty and bravery just as China was knuckling under Japanese invasion in the 1930s and 1940s, imbuing them with realism learned at the prestigious Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
“He created his horses mainly during the War of Resistance against Japan’s Aggression and put all of his emotion into his paintings,” his son Xu Qingping said.
“Horses are very beautiful, loyal, courageous and they always lead the charge to victory. I believe this is why Chinese people love his paintings.”
Having studied animal anatomy in Paris, Xu “came up with a special technique, using free brush strokes, very few lines and only ink,” his son said.
Among Xu’s hundreds of horses, the most sought-after are those racing ahead, hooves in the air. Those commanding the highest prices — upwards of US$1 million — are shown chest forward, heads tossed to the side.
“The horses have expressive poses. Some are standing, some are galloping, or drinking water by the river,” said Carmen Ip, a specialist in Chinese art for auction house Sotheby’s. “Under Xu’s strong brush strokes, they are muscular, lean and full of energy. He uses different shades of ink against white paper, creating light and shadow effect.”
Collectors also value the artwork for the inscriptions that Xu incorporated.
They often contained a poem, such as those from the celebrated Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) poet Du Fu, encouraging people not to give up, Ip said.
Painting’s father figure
“This is especially meaningful during a time of political instability in China,” she said. “He was not only a great artist, he was also a passionate patriot.”
Several museums in China are dedicated to Xu, who became a father figure of Chinese painting and chaired the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.
An exhibition currently on in the capital, A Master and His Masters, displays 60 of his pictures along with 60 French works that influenced him.
The effects are most visible in his representations of the human body, an essential aspect of his training in Paris, said Philippe Cinquini, the show’s curator.
Chinese artists had virtually stopped depicting the body by the 19th century, whereas the tradition had been developing in the West for 500 years.
“Xu Beihong played a key role in returning the human body to Chinese painting,” Cinquini said.
In recent years several Chinese painters have surpassed traditional Western superstars at international auctions.
Three Chinese artists were among the global top five for the total value of works auctioned in 2011, according to world art database Artprice, including Zhang Daqian in first place. Xu was fifth, just behind Pablo Picasso.
His most expensive work, Cultivation on the Peaceful Land, fetched US$42.2 million in Beijing that year.
Purchased almost exclusively by Chinese, Xu’s works “increase in value steadily over time,” said Artprice founder Thierry Ehrmann.
But copying is rife in China, and they are among the most replicated paintings, with various owners claiming to have 10,000 of his pieces in total, according to his son — far more than his authenticated actual production of 3,000.
A painting attributed to him, The Body of Miss Jiang Biwei, sold for more than US$11 million in Beijing, only for a group of artists to reveal one of them had painted it 30 years after Xu’s death.
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