SANYU (1895-1966) - Lot 347

SANYU (1895-1966) Lying cat, circa 1930 Oil and mixed media on cardboard. Signed lower right. 22 x 26 cm Art in Lab analysis report dated July 21, 2023: X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared, Digital Microscopy, Optical Microscopy This work will be included in the Catalogue Raisonné of Sanyu's oils under no. LCF 322. A letter of intent from the Li CHING - Rita I-Wong Foundation dated June 17, 2024 will be given to the buyer. We would like to thank Rita Wong, a specialist in the artist's work, for authenticating this work. Expert : Cabinet Chanoit, +33 (0)1 47 70 22 33 In the 1920s, Paris was certainly in Chinese minds the hotbed of European artistic culture. Sanyu, aged just 19, was one of the first artists from his country to travel to France in 1921, thanks to a government-sponsored program. He joined other Chinese artists, including Georgette Chen Liying, Lin Fengmian, Xu Beihong, Chang Shuhong and Pan Yullaing, among many others. Introduced to avant-garde pictorial languages, these artists experimented with Art Deco, Cubism, Surrealism... and abstraction. Many shared the idea that Western art had to be used to serve Chinese art. Some seek to distance themselves from the teachings of traditional painting, while others embrace Western culture and privilege what seems to be lacking in the art of the literati. All meditate on the meeting of the two cultures, and most return home to create synthetic works of local interest, often with a nationalistic slant. Sanyu's path is different. Inhabited by Chinese painting, he is also in osmosis with major movements such as Surrealism. He succeeded in freeing himself from the traditionalism of Asian art, bringing it to the threshold of modernity. In its originality, Sanyu's work presents a singular fusion of these influences. His fauvist verve and calligraphic line earned him the nickname "Chinese Matisse". Preferring a less conventional apprenticeship than the Beaux-arts, he studied at the Grande-Chaumière. He sketched portraits of the people around him, discovered live nudes and lived a dandy's life marked by a disdain for the commercialism of art that was characteristic of Chinese scholars. Unlike many of his Chinese painter friends, he stayed in Europe. He traveled to Berlin and New York and ended his days in Paris in 1966, poor and unrecognized, while Asia was just discovering his work after a first exhibition devoted to him in 1964 in Taipei. Sanyu was not a prolific painter, producing some three hundred and twenty oil paintings on canvas, masonite or cardboard, listed in Mrs. Wong's Catalogue Raisonné. Nudes, flowers and animals are his favorite subjects. Animals, whether exotic (leopards, dromedaries, giraffes) or companion animals (cats and Pekingese) always convey moods similar to those of human beings. Our elongated cat, attractive and sensual, nevertheless remains intractable and distant. In the simplicity of its pause, it evokes the serenity and gentle melancholy of the animal that remains enigmatic. The calligraphic virtuosity of the line, typical of Chinese art, is blended here with a modernist look and line in a composition that is both synthetic and silent. The feline's mood and pause are captured on the fly by a swift, modern brushwork, whose strength gives this cat an insistent, mysterious presence. * Reminder: In accordance with the conditions of sale, the buyer is responsible for the right of resale on this lot (4% of the hammer price only from €750 to €50,000, decreasing thereafter). ATTENTION: Bids and purchase orders on this lot are subject to conditions. In order to bid on this lot, a deposit of €15,000 will be required. Please contact our office before the start of the sale: lille@artefact-encheres.com or + 33 (0)3 20 15 99 04. If you have not contacted our office before the lot, your bids will not be taken into account. Please note that bids and absentee bids on this lot are subject to conditions. To bid on this lot, a deposit of 15.000 € will be requested. You must contact the auction house at lille@artefact-encheres.com or + 33 (0)3 20 15 99 04. If you did not contact our office before the start of the auction sale. Your bids will not be taken into account.