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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Sherman | 100
• Sale Date:
  11 May 2022 ~ 5pm (AEST)
• Lot #:
  61
• Lot Description:
  Guan Wei
  (Chinese/Australian, born 1957)
  Untitled
  mixed media on card
  44.0 x 20.0 x 7.0cm approx. (artwork); 70.0 x 35.5 x 20.5cm (display case)
  stamped with seal upper left: 'spring flower, autumn fruit'
• Provenance:
  The Gene & Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney, a gift from the artist
• Notes:
  The story of my first meeting with Guan Wei has been well documented and yet, in different contexts, somehow bears repeating. Three young Chinese hopefuls, who in conversation turned out to be artists, gingerly approached me at the Paddington Hargrave Street Gallery asking, via Liu Xiao Xian's minimal English, whether I would be prepared to look at their work. At Sherman Galleries we had systems in place for unsolicited artist submissions and I generally did not stop my own work to engage with drop-in creatives. Intuitively, in this case, I changed protocol –agreeing to a quick look. The threesome looked so eager and were ever so clearly strangers in a foreign land. The tallest and least talkative of the three - Guan Wei - laid out an astonishing (to me) small body of work on the Gallery's mid-grey monochromatic office floor carpet. The year was 1989 and the rest as they say, is history. Along the way and over the many years that followed, I learned about China's post-revolutionary story, travelled multiple times to Beijing and Shanghai and continue, to this day, to read and follow the country's transformation and ever-growing influence. Through Guan Wei I met many of the once-dissident artists whose suffering during the Cultural Revolution and subsequent early nineties idealism, had shaped their vision of a relatively bright future. Cai Guo Qiang, Xu Bing, Ai Weiwei, Zhang Huan, Wenda Gu, later to become Contemporary Chinese artist royalty, were all became a part of a close circle that importantly included curators and writers such as Dr Claire Roberts, Professor Nicholas Jose, Professor Geremie Barmé, Linda Jaivin and Nobel Prize winner, Gao Xingjian, all of whom were later to become significant academics and authors. Celebrated now as a formidable part of the post-Tiananmen Square wave, the aforementioned group of three – including Ah Xian and Guan Wei – went from strength to strength as both artists and communicators. The first solo exhibitions at Sherman Galleries for Guan Wei were staged in 1993 and 1995, after which, together with his wife Liu Pin, we became treasured friends. Daughter Mimi was soon born to Guan Wei and Liu Pin and two beautiful children to Ah Xian. I keep in touch periodically with them all to this day.Guan Wei's work on offer here was, with hindsight, created during a golden moment in modern and contemporary Chinese history. Despite their small scale, the pieces are clearly quite precious. The couple seemingly float free of constraints, referencing the times and capturing a moment when the world opened up and the potential for positive change emerged from dreamscapes, becoming an ever more tangible reality. Dr Gene Sherman
• Estimate:
  A$1,500 - 2,500
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.