RICHARD LIN 林壽宇 | MARCH 1962 一九六二年三月

Marlborough Replica Handbags , London

Important Private European Collection 

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倫敦，馬博羅畫廊

歐洲重要私人收藏

After signing with Gimpel Fils Gallery in London in 1959, Richard Lin's talents shone at his first solo exhibition. In his paintings, he was no longer concerned with external forms of nature. Through basic geometric compositions, he explored the spiritual and philosophical realm of the union of man and nature. He stood out from the group of Asian artists who were primarily influenced by Lyrical Abstraction, and he very quickly gained fame in the Western post-war art world. As a student, he was immersed in modernist architecture, elements of which can be found in his later geometric abstractions. He began with pure quadrilaterals, spreading rectangles of different shapes and sizes across the canvas. With this, his Painting Relief series was born. In this series, he broke the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and architecture, creating a minimalist style of painting all his own that surprised the 1960s art world. March 1962 (Lot 1029), offered at this Evening Sale, is a classic work from this series. Originally sold by the Marlborough Gallery in London, which represented Lin in the 1960s, the work presents a rare opportunity to collect an important work from Richard Lin's Painting Relief series.

 'The Chinese word for "abstract" was translated from the English. The Chinese term emphasizes removing everything unnecessary until all that is left is a void.'

-Richard Lin

In March 1962, white rectangles of different sizes, shapes, and materials are juxtaposed and layered on the canvas. The deceptively simple repetition of a standardized, mechanical aesthetic conveys the simplicity of modernism and the essence of spatial structure. In this context, Richard Lin expanded the white spectrum. He said, 'White is actually a lot of colours; it can be thick and thin, light and dark, transparent and semi-transparent... which allows there to be many marvellous shapes and spaces in the whites!' The seemingly monotonous white is actually made up of painstakingly-arranged white rectangles. Lin broke with traditional painting's emphasis on perspectival depictions rooted in visual experience, using rectangles as a way of creating relief and producing light and shadow in the work. The painting achieves a continuous balance, creating an almost sacred realm for the viewer. When viewers are enveloped by a permeable white field, an intimate interaction takes place. The different layers of white rectangles and the lines produced by the layered blocks depict the artist's will, distilling his inner emotions and representing the minimalist aesthetic imperative of "expressing complex ideas simply." The extreme abstraction of the image posits a new understanding of the artist and the self. Richard Lin's series of white relief works, including this piece, launched an entirely new direction in the development of his art. This piece represents cornerstone for his White Series, which makes March 1962 significant and eminently collectible.

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註：畫背貼有馬博羅畫廊標籤

林壽宇自一九五九年簽約倫敦金貝爾・斐斯畫廊，舉辦首次個展開始展露頭角，他在繪畫中倡導脫離自然外在的形式，通過基本幾何構圖尋求「天人合一」的精神哲學境界，從一眾以抒情抽象為主要創作方向的東方藝術家中脫穎而出，很快在歐美戰後藝壇名聲四起。藝術家在學時期浸淫現代主義建築設計，對於日後幾何抽象的構成上有跡可循，他以單純的四邊形為起始，在畫布上羅列不同大小形狀和材質的塊面，「繪畫浮雕」系列應運而生。此系列的誕生，打破繪畫、雕塑與建築之間的界線，創造出屬於藝術家個人獨一無二的極簡繪畫風格，驚艷了六○年代的藝壇。是次夜拍帶來的《一九六二年三月》（拍品編號1029）為此系列的經典之作，最早來源自六○年代藝術家的著名國際代理馬博羅‧倫敦畫廊，如今釋出誠為收藏林壽宇「繪畫浮雕」代表作之難得機會。

「所謂的抽象是從英文abstract翻過來，觀其意就是去掉所有不需要的東西，最終的存在是一個無。」

林壽宇

《一九六二年三月》中不同大小、形狀及材質的白色方塊並列或疊於畫布，看似簡單地重複著一種標準化的機械美學，傳達出現代主義的簡單性，亦呈現出空間構造的本質。在此語境下，林壽宇拓展了白色的光譜，他曾表示：「白色本身即有許多色彩，其濃、淡、輕、重、透明、半透明…使白與白之間構成了許多形狀與形狀，空間與空間的玄奇奧妙！」看似單一的白其實是藝術家刻意安排的白色矩形線陣，他打破傳統繪畫以視覺經驗為基本的透視法，利用方塊作成浮雕的方式，讓畫面產生光線及陰影的變化，整體畫面達到一致性的平衡，而呈現出一種神聖的觀感，在其具有滲透性的白色場域包圍之下，令觀者產生親密的互動感。畫中不同層次的白色塊面，以及塊面堆疊所產生的線條，均為藝術家個人意志貫徹到底的寫照，將內在情感壓縮至極限，一如極簡美學中所強調的「複雜思想的單純表達」，在畫面極端的抽象之下，反而轉變為觀者在觀賞作品中徜徉時，對藝術家和對自我的重新認知。從林壽宇藝術發展歷程的角度看來，包括本畫在內的一系列白色浮雕作品，開啟了藝術家創作的全新維度，可謂日後「白色系列」誕生的重要基石，如今見諸拍賣場，其重要意義及收藏價值可見一斑。