Portrait, from the Liang Shan Yi Portrait Series: Luo Zhongli

Among contemporary Chinese painters, Luo Zhongli is widely regarded as a leading representative of Regional Realism. During his tenure at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, in Chongqing, China, he played a significant role in establishing the school as an important centre for this genre.

One of Luo Zhongli’s earliest landmarks was his participation in the Second National Youth Art Exhibition in Beijing in 1981. There, he presented Father, a monumental portrait depicting the weathered face of an elderly, rural working man from the Daba Mountains in central China. Made in a photorealist manner, the man’s deeply lined face, darkened and burned by years of exposure to the sun, conveys the harsh realities of rural life in China.

Father represented a striking departure from the dominant visual conventions of the Mao era and its propagandistic imagery, which stands as a canonical landmark of contemporary Chinese art. Rather than presenting the idealized vision of Chinese society, the artist turned his attention toward an ordinary rural worker and their harsh working conditions. The work challenged the notions of beauty and artistic representation and confronted viewers with a reality that had largely been absent from China’s imagery.

During the 1990s, Luo Zhongli continued his interest in rural China, turning his attention to the Yi people, an ethnic minority living primarily in the mountainous Liangshan region of southwestern China. More than a decade after Father, this new series marked a notable shift to a more mature style.

In Portrait, from the Liangshan Yi Portrait Series, 1993, Luo moved away from the darker blues and grays that characterized some of his earlier work toward a more luminous and vibrant palette. Father conveyed hardship and endurance, but the Yi portraits often appear more hopeful and open. In the present portrait, yellow, cerulean blue, red, and orange animate the composition.

Dressed in traditional clothing, the young woman appears poised and determined rather than mournful. Her presence conveys a sense of dignity and self-possession. Through this shift in both colour and subject, Luo Zhongli continued to explore rural Chinese life while offering a more affirmative vision of the people he depicted.

ABOUT THE AUCTION

Headlining this auction are works by renowned Canadian artists Cornelius Krieghoff, Gordon Appelbe Smith, Frederick Arthur Verner, A.J. Casson, A.Y. Jackson, and William Kurelek, alongside international offerings by Edouard Cortès and Henri Lebasque. Also featured is a collection of works by Georges Mathieu, David Milne, and Eduardo Paolozzi from an Important Private Collection. Additional highlights include exceptional, unpublished works by Fernand Léger and Sir Alfred James Munnings.

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On view at our Toronto gallery:

Saturday, November 14 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Sunday, November 15 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Monday, November 16 from 10 am to 5 pm
Tuesday, November 17 from 10 am to 7 pm
Wednesday, November 18 from 10 am to 5 pm

Or by appointment.

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