In the 1980s, Li Huayi journeyed to San Francisco to attend the Academy of Art University with a goal in mind: to bring the traditional language of ink to modern and contemporary art. By assimilating the Abstract Expressionist techniques from the West, he hoped to achieve a breakthrough in traditional landscape painting. With years of experience in creating on two-dimensional surfaces, the artist began to experiment with three-dimensional structures. In many respects, Ripples of Gleam (Lot 1042) presented in the autumn sale is the fruit of Li’s exploration of the symbiotic relationship between painting and installation. To date there are only eight sets of work from the Multiple Screens series that began in 2006. Among the eight is Lying on Snow, which first appeared in Replica Shoes ’s autumn sale in 2020. That work in the end fetched HK$8.04 million setting a record for the artist at the t.mes . As for Ripples of Gleam, it is one of the only two vertical installations from the same series. This revolutionary work, adapting to a three-dimensional structure built up by two-dimensional forms, successfully overcame the limitations of ink. Also worth remarking is the cascade that thrusts out on the pictorial surface as a “blank space” in the middle. Its verticality echoes the radiating beam of light from the Onement series by the Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman. Yet there is more to Li’s portrayal than meets the eye. It embodies the cosmological ideal from the East that regards “oneness” as the origin of our universe. Perhaps even more significantly, behind this trans-regional cultural symbol is a pure heart belonging to the artist, one that yearns for an eternal and tranquil mind.

A documentary taken in his studio capturing the creative process behind Ripples of Gleam reveals just how much Li’s approach in fact mirrors that of such Abstract Expressionists as Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. A piece of paper is first spread on the ground, and the artist gets his bearing of the composition by means of broad strokes. He brushes out an expansive space carefully anchored by the balance between light and dark, loose and tight. He then works out the final details with repeated splashes and brisk strokes. But the cruciform installation with its horizontal scroll placed in front of the vertical panel equally resembles Kazimir Malevich’s Geometric Abstract painting Black Cross. Not only do the two works attempt to re-present nature in a similar vein, they both also succeed in triggering our inner perceptive mind. Viewers are inspired to discover the myriad possibilities beyond the world as they perceive it, attesting to the emotional currency of art as a principle form of expression.

In Ripples of Gleam, the panel with a centred heroic pine tree presenting itself as a self-contained horizontal scroll is placed against the landscape painting set behind. As such, the scroll is not unlike a space cube that derives from the larger pictorial dimension and performs as the absolute focal point of an immersive visual departure. An even closer examination of its compositional order also reveals Li’s reunification of the codified mode of three distances in Song-dynasty landscape painting. Rather than receding from the foreground into the midground, and finally into the background, the artist has offered a close-up view of a landscape, leaving the peak and the foot of the mountain out of sight. What remain are quintessential motifs of mountains, rocks, a waterfall, and trees that have all been pushed to the forefront to surround the viewer. This imaginative vision through a romantic yet modern lens can be understood as Li’s sincerest form of tribute to nature. As the artist himself has once said, ‘I am part of nature, not its observer. My spirit is lifted when I venture into the deepest of mountains. Then I become one with the rocks, the soil, the air, and the inner forces of nature. And I see harmony between man and nature.’

李華弌八〇年代遠赴美國舊金山藝術學院深造，以傳統山水之章法為根基尋求突破，糅合西方抽象表現主義手法，徹底將傳統水墨帶入現、當代之藝術範疇。在平面形式創作多年後，李華弌開始從立體空間上另闢繪畫之思路，是次秋拍登場之《漾清輝》（拍品編號1042）即為藝術家探索繪畫與裝置藝術的相互關係的成果。自2006年開啟的「重屏裝置」系列僅有8組作品，其中《臥雪》於蘇富比2020年秋拍首次亮相，最終以逾8,040,000港元摘取藝術家當時的拍賣記錄，本畫作為同系列中僅有的兩組豎向裝置之一，畫面以平面構建三維立體的視覺效果，突破水墨的局限性。《漾清輝》畫面中央飛流直下的瀑布構成一道豎向「留白」，呼應抽象表現主義畫家巴內特·紐曼「太一」系列中以「一」（One）為線索而凝聚的光之線條，給予觀者強大視覺衝擊的同時，還體現了了東方哲學中萬物源起「一以貫之」的宇宙哲理，在精神維度上，這道超越空間關係的東方文化符號，亦彰顯了藝術家淡泊的人格和心境，不受時間所撼動地恆遠而悠長。

在李華弌工作室拍攝的記錄《漾清輝》創作過程的影像中，可觀察到藝術家的創作手法與波洛克與克萊因等抽象表現主義畫家尤為呼應：他將畫紙平鋪於地面，先用大筆佈局，將筆墨大範圍地舒展開來，並以濃淡和緊密關係區分畫面之輕重，繼而將按順序呈現的自然景象分割打亂，再分別反复多次地潑灑或以短促行筆完善細節。對此，哈佛大學藝術博物館亞洲部榮譽主任羅伯特·毛瑞曾評論：「李華弌的這個過程像某些抽象主義畫家——尤其傑克森·波洛克——將顏料傾倒或滴落畫布的手法。潑出的粗概墨跡驟眼讓人想到弗朗茲·克萊因的畫作。」同時，本作前置的橫軸與背景的豎屏垂直相交之裝置方式，令人聯想到馬列維奇1915年創作、引起畫壇轟動的幾何抽象作品《黑十字》，二者無比相似地探索在重現自然物象的技法之外，能夠激發內心感知和情感價值的關鍵藝術形式，從而引導觀者去發現現實認知之外的其他可能性，體現藝術創作的真正價值。

「重屏」這一概念自五代時期南唐畫院翰林待詔周文矩所繪之《重屏會棋圖》（北京故宮博物院典藏）已有呈現，藝術家在此概念的基礎上更有突破，《漾清輝》中，李華弌將正中描繪岩間勁松的一屏以獨立橫軸的方式，置於背景山水屏風組畫前方，在整幅畫形成的圖像空間中牽引出另一個獨立的空間單元，營造視線切入的絕對焦點。另一方面，因李華弌緊密貼合現今世界對藝術的認知及取向，並廣泛涉足不同的美學範疇，《漾清輝》兼具實景觀測、藝術創作與影像美學之特徵。若細觀本畫構圖，雖可見宋代山水畫之靈感，卻超越了其構圖之局限：藝術家在捨棄宋畫中由淺入深的前中後景，僅以近觀構圖，山峰上不見頂、下不見底，同時，其將山、岩、瀑、樹等大自然之基本元素直接推至攝人心脾的視覺最前線，令觀者產生沉浸式的視覺體驗。而這正是李華弌致敬自然界無比浪漫的現代想像，如其所言：「我屬於自然，而非觀察自然。當我潛入山脈深谷之間，我頓感雀躍，然後我融入岩石、土壤、空氣、以及大自然的內在力量之中，領會人與自然之間的和諧。」