Liu Kuo-Sung is a career ink painter who revolutionized modern art in Asia. Establishing Fifth Moon group in 1957, he led an international movement that sent a wave of modernism throughout the art world. Liu worked tirelessly throughout his 60-year career to enact his grand vision. His work has been collects ed by more than 60 important museums and institutions around the world. Coming (Lot 1053), presented this season, is a work in Liu Kuo-Sung’s Space Series, which made him famous in the 1970s. He first conceived of Coming in 1972 and finally completed it in 1979. The eight years the work took to create show that this piece ranks among the best of Liu’s artistic career. Not long after the painting was created, it was added to the collects ion of the current owners, Robert and Lindsey Hall. For the first t.mes in more than 40 years, this 1970s masterpiece by Liu Kuo-Sung is being shared with the public.

Coming was painted in the 1970s. It was a decade when Liu Kuo-Sung, enriched by the experience of his international travels, realised rapid growth and maturity in his thoughts on art. Beginning in 1968, the character for dawn or day (dan) appeared as an important symbol in his work, set against backgrounds neatly divided into two blocks of colour. In December that same year, the United States launched the Apollo 8 mission to orbit the moon. Early the next year, Liu saw the pictures that the shuttle had transmitted back from the moon, which prompted him to create the first Where is Earth? and launch his acclaimed Space Series. In 1967, when Liu was in Sweden, he saw the midnight sun for the first t.mes , and this astronomical phenomenon left a deep impression on him. In works from the same series created shortly thereafter, Liu depicted these spectacles of the universe in a more expansive multi-panel form. His series, Midnight Sun and Coming, represent two different kinds of imagery. In contrast to the identically sized suns that never set in the Midnight Sun series, Coming presents the moon from small to large, imitating the path of its movement. According to the artist’s studio, there are only three Coming works from the 1970s.Liu Kuo-Sung: A Universe of His Own, published in 2004, shows that one of the four-panel versions of Coming is part of the Take a Step Back collects ion in Hong Kong. Coming, in a rare seven-panel composition, is truly a treasure.

Coming has been part of the collects ion of Robert and Lindsey Hall, noted collects ors of Chinese art, for more than 40 years. The Halls began dealing in Chinese snuff bottles in the 1980s and they forged a deep relationship with Hugh Moss, known as the Master of the Water, Pine, and Stone Retreat. He was also a guide and friend to the Halls. Together with another collects or Ed Miller, the Halls established Lo Shan Tang in 1988, which was devoted to promoting Chinese art around the world. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, they held important commercial and museum exhibitions in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Singapore, published a number of catalogues of modern Chinese painting and calligraphy, and built relationships with artists such as Liu Dan, He Huaishuo, and Tong Yangtze (Grace Tong). In 2004, the Hong Kong Art Museum held “Liu Kuo-Sung: A Universe of His Own,” and the Halls attended the opening to extend their congratulations. In ”A Lifet.mes of Beauty in Our Midst: How This Historical Painting Inspired Our Lives Over 40 Years,” the essay Lindsey Hall wrote on Coming, the work entered the couple’s collects ion soon after it was completed. The piece witnessed the important moments in their lives: getting married, starting their careers, and raising children. The Halls moved many t.mes s, but this painting always had a prominent place in their home, such that they considered it almost a member of the family. As Lindsey Hall described:“Here it has been admired, enjoyed and a source of discussion, as it loomed over our dining table and the vast array of friends and family we loved to host – from fellow collects ors, dealers and auctioneers, to entrepreneurs, musicians, traders, creatives, city-types, media-types, politicians, jewellers, artisans…all who have spent hours with us wining and dining, under the gaze of our Liu Guosong painting… But always, back home our painting “Coming” took pride of place. It is this painting that has always dictated decision-making of the colour scheme of its variously decorated interior settings over all these years; with always a nod to the rich midnight blue of the space behind the moons. Liu Guo Song’s vivid colour and imagination continues to inspire and influence, even the smallest detail.”

Today, the original collects ors, in their bittersweet parting from this treasure, leave the following words to the next owners of: "The painting is leaving us but never forgotten and the blue theme will continue in our home for the rest of t.mes . I hope its next journey will be as beautiful and happy as it has been for our family."

《如來》劉國松是東方藝術的革命先鋒、終身不渝的水墨鬥士，憑藉豐富多彩的作品、宏大精密的理論，以及積極奮進的行動，其自1957年創立「五月畫會」開始，掀起一場由東及西的現代風潮；作為這場國際運動之領袖，劉國松在超過一甲子的事業生涯始終努力不懈，實踐他的藝術宏圖，作品至今被全球六十多家重要博物館及機構典藏，2016年更當選美國文理學院院士，國際成就再創高峰；2018年，年屆八十七歲的劉國松依然精力旺盛，慷慨赴任上海視覺藝術學院，成為該校當代水墨藝術研究院的創院院長，提携後進不遺餘力。本季隆重登場的《如來》（拍品編號 1053）乃劉國松七〇年代蜚聲畫壇的「太空系列」鉅作，自 1972年提筆構想，至1979年最終完成，其創作歷程長達八年之久，按藝術家文獻庫，其創作年份跨度如此之久，只因劉國松對本畫精益求精的至高要求，堅持完善到最滿意之際才停筆落款，足證本畫精彩程度當屬藝術家畢生創作之頂尖水平。「太空系列」中，以七聯屏創作之恢弘巨幅誠為珍罕，目前已納入出版的七〇年代七聯屏畫作更是鳳毛麟角，本畫自誕生後不久即被納入現任藏家羅伯特與林德茜・霍爾伉儷之珍藏，時隔40餘年後首度亮相，將引領世人一同見證劉國松從未現世的七〇年代驚世鉅作，體會其以石破天驚的手筆盡訴胸中激情，噴薄成為前無古人、當世無雙的震撼視界。

《如來》創作於1970年代，當時的劉國松因其豐富的國際遊歷之見聞，藝術發展之思想體系迅速成熟，且直觀地反映到作品之上：60年代末藝術家獲得美國洛克菲勒三世基金贊助，展開為期兩年的美國、歐洲遊歷之旅，親炙戰後藝術精粹，當中羅斯科的作品對他影響尤大，加上范寛《谿山行旅圖》之啟迪，使他的作品自1968年起呈現重要的「旦」字形結構，同時背景以簡潔的兩色分割；同年12月，美國發射阿波羅八號執行繞月任務，藝術家在翌年初看到太空船從月球拍攝傳回的照片，創作出首幅《地球何許？》，開啟至今繪炙人口的「太空系列」。1967年，劉國松於瑞典首次見到日月同光的「永晝」現象，對此天文奇景烙下深刻印象，在稍後誕生的同系列作品中，藝術家在「旦」字形結構之基礎上，以更加恢弘磅礴的多聯屏形式組合成巨幅作品，以描繪早前觀測到的宇宙奇景，其中以《子夜太陽》與《如來》兩大系列分別代表兩種不同情景。區別於《子夜太陽》系列中尺寸相同、永不落日之太陽，《如來》的畫面中呈現自遠而近，由小至大模擬其運行軌跡之景象。據藝術家工作室，創作於七〇年代的《如來》僅有三幅，考2004年出版之《劉國松的宇宙》，其中一幅四聯屏之《如來》（152 x 604 cm，1973年）為香港退一步齋收藏，本幅《如來》更以罕見的七聯屏巨幅呈現亙古難見之宇宙鉅觀，實為稀世之珍。畫面中，靛藍與銀色的組合形成絕妙的視覺衝擊力，營造穿越時空般的未來感，令觀者有如處身太空，將宇宙與地球同時收於眼底；藝術家早前形成的大筆觸線條，則化身大野龍蛇的地表陵谷，筆染李白《關山月》中「明月出天山，蒼茫雲海間」之靜謐與滄桑。

《如來》來自著名中國藝術收藏家羅伯特及林德茜・霍爾伉儷逾四十年的珍藏。霍爾伉儷自八十年代起專注於中國鼻煙壺收藏，與水松石山房主人莫士撝建立亦師亦友的深厚關係。1988年，霍氏夫婦更與另一位藏家艾德·米勒成立樂山堂，矢志在世界各地推動中國繪畫藝術，八、九〇年代於香港, 台北, 新加坡等地多次舉行重要商業及博物館展覽，出版多本現代中國書畫畫冊，與劉丹, 何懷碩, 董陽孜等名家交情匪淺；2004年, 香港藝術館舉行劉國松的宇宙大展, 霍爾夫婦亦親赴開幕現場到賀。按林德茜・霍爾夫人特別為本畫之撰文《相伴一生之美麗：一幅啟發了我們逾四十年美好人生之鉅作》，本幅《如來》早在作品誕生之初，旋即進入二人珍藏。在接下來四十餘年之歲月中，它見證二人成家立業、生兒育女等人生重要經歷。期間，霍爾伉儷曾數次搬遷，但本畫始終被懸掛在家中最為顯眼的位置，可見其已成為霍爾家庭的重要一員，一如霍爾夫人在文中所述：「在這裡，我們接待各種各樣的朋友和家人，從同行的收藏家、藝術商人和拍賣官，到企業家、音樂家、商人、設計師、媒體、政治家、珠寶設計師、藝術家等，《如來》成為了被所有人讚美、欣賞和討論的源泉。……在它的注視與陪伴下，我們度過了無數美妙的時光。……在家中，《如來》是我們永遠引以為傲的焦點。多年來，我們一直以這幅畫為中心決定室內裝飾的配色方案；致敬當空明月背後那一汪靛藍的夜空。劉國松的生動色彩和想像力不斷影響和激發我們的靈感，即使是最不顯眼的細節。」

如今霍爾伉儷首肯割愛，在為瑰寶尋新歸處之際，寄語《如來》的下任藏家：「這幅畫現將離我們遠去，但它永遠不會被遺忘，一這汪靛藍將繼續縈繞在我們家中。我們衷心希望它的下一段旅程將像與我們相處的時光一般美麗和幸福。」