From my experience living in Beijing for 30 years, the air is always frigid in the winter. Before you even realized that morning had come, you woke up to a white world outside the window, watching the feather-like snow falling down slowly, it was a tranquil moment … and the air was so refreshing.... The first thing I woke up was to organize my sketching toolbox, then without further delay I would walk out of the house and happily sketch as I went. I had a small bottle of liquor in my pocket, Erguotou of 65 degrees. I would take a sip whenever my hands were frozen. Places in Beijing that were best for sketching in the snowy days were nothing more than the Beihai Park, the back garden of the Forbidden City, Zhongshan Park and those five hundred-year-old cypress trees in the Working People’s Cultural Palace. If you happened to catch the warm rays of sun after the snow... It was so beautiful. The snow white color with the red and green ancient buildings, the blue shadows... this is a color that even the Impressionists can't paint. When I was sketching in the Summer Palace, I walked on the ice and fell into Kunming Lake. I went home all soaked up, there was even thin ice formed around the trouser legs. All of the above had become beautiful and indelible memories of mine; the instant passion of the artist in sketching is the most precious motivation for painting. I studied a lot of Monet’s works. Many of his landscape paintings are research-oriented. He wanted to pursue the color of sunlight and therefore he painted with multi-layers. A sense of rationality was embedded in those works, the Haystacks and the Rouen Cathedral series were some examples. However, in my opinion, his Impression, Sunrise, a snow scene with sunshine and a train station are his best works. I was deeply inspired from how he painted those works with passion, it had also become my style of painting now that I never change after I started.

Since 2008, there was quite a number of heavy snowfalls in the mainland. Even my hometown in Changshu, Jiangnan was snowing. This has aroused my passion for painting winter snow... Especially when I settled in the subtropical regions now, I have more fantasies and dreams about the snow scenes. Every year in the north, the heavy snow would always bring good harvest for the coming year…. My biggest painting of winter snow was completed based on recollects ions and fantasies of southern China.. I added several happy little birds, which represent my dreams and hopes. It can all be expressed without words. This work had left.mes , and I feel unspeakably heartbroken, because there will never be a picture like this again, I wonder who will be the new owner for it? This is how all artists are, often feeling inexplicably unsettled by the their own creations…

Memories of the Beginning of Spring 2021

Pang Jiun

Pang Jiun’s landscape paintings are based on images and experiences the artist amassed over many years of sketching. According to the artist’s stat.mes nt to Replica Shoes ’s, Winter snow (Lot 1051) comes from happy t.mes s sketching in the snow over the three decades that he lived in Beijing. Later, seeing snowscapes in his southern Chinese hometown of Changshu inspired similar creative passions. Pang blends fragments of memories with the expressive forms of Western art and the spiritual tones of Chinese literati painting, creating the poetic realm of Winter snow. In 2015, he held a solo show entitled “Pang Jiun: Expression of the Orient” at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo, showcasing his distinctive blend of East and West. He is considered an important representative of Eastern Humanistic Expressionism.

Winter snow depicts thickly fallen snow, a pure white net hanging before the viewer’s eyes. Silently, the snow clings to the branches or accumulate on the tree trunks on the ground. Pang Jiun said, “The emotion is in the colours, and the interest is in the brushwork; the brushwork is the hardest part!” In contract with Western painting traditions, wherein brushwork is just one element of painting technique, Chinese painting values the interaction and integration of brushwork and soul. Winter Snow highlights the glittering texture of the oil paint. With chapped and patted brushstrokes, Pang creates varying thicknesses of paint and areas of visual interest. The fluid force of his brushwork is also visible in the branches crusted with frost and snow, quivering with abundant vitality.

Natural brushwork still needs colour; they are perfect complements. Pang Jiun’s work always reveals the personality of the artist through the expression of his emotions. In his stat.mes nt about Winter snow, he wrote, “I added several happy little birds, which represent my dreams and hopes. It can all be expressed without words.” In this work, the grey undertone really sets off the little birds in pale green and yellow. The pairing of warm and cool tones is also accented by the bursts of colour from the plum blossoms on the tips of the branches, reflecting Pang’s gift for colour even in a largely white snowscape.

In describings his use of colour in snowscapes, Pang Jiun said, “The highlights in a sunlit landscape are really warm and the shadows are really cool, creating a strong contrast.” The instinct for Winter snow stems from Pang’s memories and perceptions of sunlight after a snowfall. The snowy landscape in the painting reveals the tranquillity and and contentment in the artist as he painted the work. The bird flapping its wings in the upper right corner creates a charming contrast with the two birds sitting quietly on other branches. The painting exudes a delightful innocence; the birds adorn the snowscape, rounding out the beautiful world of the artist’s recollects ion.

Winter snow, offered at this season’s evening sale, is the largest of Pang’s snowscapes and it is his first pure snowscape to appear at auction to date. Although Pang Jiun has painted very few of its kind, another snowy landscape, Auspicious snow (2008), is currently in the collects ion of the National Art Museum of China. Harmonie hivernale, a triptych also offered at this season’s evening sale, is the abstract presentation of concrete memories that had lingered in Chu Teh-Chun’s mind for twenty years. In comparison, Pang Jiun said that Winter snow was completed based on recollects ions and fantasies of southern China. The snow in his hometown awakened deep memories of and feelings about the 30 winters he spent in Beijing. These memories and emotions have accumulated over the years, and he invests the painting with feeling in order to bring out a refined, abstract beauty. These two snowscape works reflect the artists’ entirely different moods, but both fuse representation and abstraction, echoing one another across t.mes .

住在北京三十秋冬的日子裡，入冬總有呼呼的寒風，每當在冬眠不覺曉的日子，一枕夢醒：窗外已是白色世界，鵝毛大雪緩緩飄落，此時是格外地安靜……，空氣又是如此清爽……。起床後的第一件事，就是整理畫箱、刻不容緩地走出了家，愉快地寫生。口袋中放著一小瓶的酒，六十五度的“二鍋頭”，兩手凍僵時，喝上一口……。每年遇上下雪的好日子，在北京寫生的地方，無非是北海公園、景山、故宮後花園、中山公園、勞動人民文化宮中那些五百年以上的柏樹，如果遇上了雪後陽光……那真是太美了。白色配上紅紅綠綠的古建築，藍色的影子……這是“印象派”也畫不出來的色彩。在頤和園寫生，走在冰上還掉進了昆明湖，只好像落湯雞一樣地回家，褲腿已結上了薄冰。以上這一切都成了美好的、不滅的回憶；藝術家在寫生中的剎那激情，是最珍貴的作畫動力。我研究過莫內Monet的許多作品，他有不少風景畫是研究性的，因為他要追求陽光的色彩，因此是多層畫法，帶有更多成份的理性。例如他畫的《稻草堆》、《里昂教堂的門》，但他的《日出印象》以及有一幅有陽光的雪景，還有火車站，我認為是他最好的作品。只因為留下了激情，這一經驗使我終身受益，所以我就變成了下筆不改，一筆定江山的畫風。

2008年以來，大陸下過多次大雪，甚至我的家鄉江南常熟也出現了雪景，這喚起了我畫雪景的激情……。尤其年邁定居於亞熱帶，對雪景又有了更多夢幻，在北方的每年大雪，總是帶來一年豐收的好日子，所謂春雨貴如油，大雪兆豐年……。我最大的一幅雪景圖，是在南方的回憶與幻覺中完成，我加進了許多快樂的小鳥，也是我的夢想與希望，一切盡在不言中。此作離開了我，使我難言地心痛，因為再也不可能有此畫面，真不知畫落誰家？藝術家就是這樣，經常莫名地為自己靈感的結晶而不安……。

2021年立春的回憶
龎均

龎均的風景作品建基於長久以來從寫生經驗累積的畫面和情感，根據藝術家提供予蘇富比的自述，《冬雪》（拍品編號1051）的畫面源於其住在北京三十年間，雪中寫生的美好記憶，後來他在家鄉江南常熟看到雪景，遂引發創作之激情。藝術家將記憶中的一點一滴，綜合西方油畫如後印象派和野獸派的表現形式，結合中國文人畫著重寫意的精神內涵、「灰調子」的水墨韻味以及傳統書法的流動筆韻，凝鑄成《冬雪》瀟灑脫俗的詩情畫意。2015年，藝術家於日本東京上野之森美術館舉行「東洋表現主義的巨匠：東方表現的龎均」的個人展覽，其融匯東西所展現的獨特意境，被譽為東方人文表現主義的代表，別樹一幟 。

《冬雪》描繪簌簌飄落的鵝毛大雪，織成眼前一面皚皚白網，輕如柳絮的雪花有的靜靜地掛在樹梢，有的如柔軟的白绒被，積層於地上的樹幹 。銀裝素裹的世界仿佛連空氣也格外清爽，散發超塵脱俗的靜謐安然。龎均曾表述：「感人在色彩，畫趣在用筆，用筆最難！」藝術家堅持使用單一油畫材質，融合國畫氣韻生動的用筆，將內心的情感衝動，外化成運筆的速度和擠壓，正如明末畫僧石濤所謂「畫受墨，墨受筆，筆受腕，腕受心」之道。在西畫傳統上，用筆僅為繪畫技巧的一環，而國畫則重視筆法與心靈的互通與聯繫。《冬雪》展現藝術家以皴筆、拍筆堆疊出厚薄起伏多變的油彩肌理，富有靈性；酣暢淋灕的運筆動勢，亦見於凝霜掛雪的樹枝線條，如藝術家曾述：「只有中國人才能更好地理解線條和人之間的情感連結」，畫面上的線條柔而不滑，剛而不僵，所表達的正是一種所謂一波三折的氣韻，具有豐富的生命力 。

率性的用筆猶需色彩的配置運用方能相得益彰，賦予作品撼動人心之力量。創作於龎均盡然是個性的表露、情緒的抒發，他在《冬雪》的自述中寫道：「我加進了許多快樂的小鳥，也是我的夢想與希望，一切盡在不言中。」作品的畫面用色以其最為人稱道的「灰調子」作基調，如迷霧般的深淺灰色構成空靈飄渺的背景，使樹枝上以蔥綠嫩黃著色的小鳥更顯跳脫，一冷一暖的顏色搭配，與吐艷枝頭的紅梅既成對比亦作互補，盡見藝術家在銀白雪景中組織色彩的巧思。

龎均曾對繪畫雪景的用色有此論述：「陽光下的雪景亮面特別暖，暗面特別冷，對比強烈」，由此可推斷《冬雪》的畫面源於畫家對雪後陽光的深刻記憶和感受。藝術家亦曾表述，莫內最精彩的作品之一，是幅有陽光的雪景，因為當中留下了激情。這不但啟發藝術家往後下筆不改，一筆定江山的畫風，更強化其融於景象的情感份量。龎均形容在那些下雪的好日子裡，創作自是悠然自得：「起床後的第一件事，就是整理畫箱、刻不容緩地走出了家，愉快地寫生。口袋中放著一小瓶的酒，六十五度的“二鍋頭”，兩手凍僵時，喝上一口……。」《冬雪》的寒冬雪景正正流露藝術家平和惬意的愉悅心境，畫面右上角羽翼豐盈，振翅騰空的鳥兒，與枝頭上的雙鳥相映成趣，洋溢畫家未泯的童心，既印證其「以趣味為第一，以妙法為境界」之論述，更點綴雪景整體幽雅恬靜之境，完整呈現藝術家回憶中純潔美好的世界，傳達予觀者漫溢心頭的暖意。

本季登臨晚拍的《冬雪》，既為藝術家筆下雪景作品的尺幅之最，亦為迄今亮相拍場的首幅純雪景作品，罕有呈現藝術家憶雪之美的靈感結晶。龎均筆下的雪景作品屈指可數，其中創作於2008年的《瑞雪》，為中國美術館所收藏。本季登臨同場晚拍的雪景三聯鉅獻《盛世雪》，乃朱德群將縈繞腦海二十載，對於風雪的具體記憶，訴諸畫面之抽象呈現。對比《冬雪》，龎均自言此作「在南方的回憶與幻覺中完成」，家鄉的雪景喚起其在北京度過三十秋冬， 累積而來對雪景的深刻記憶和感情，畫面緣情於景， 蘊含脫俗的抽象之美。引黃賓虹曰：「同畫一座山，彼此所畫不相同，非山有不同，乃畫者用心有不同」，兩幅雪景作品所呈現的，正是藝術家截然不同的心象折射，當中具象與抽象的交替演繹， 遙相呼應，意境盎然。