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Calmness of a Lake

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Author Topic: Calmness of a Lake  (Read 1411 times)
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Peter Bentley 彭达理
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« on: November 20, 2017, 06:59:34 pm »

Hi  All,

Sorry to  be out of  circulation for  so long. I was  in UK visiting  my family  for  one  month (No  I did not  join the  ICSBS  convention, even though  I was  in London at the  same  time . I have  quietly  resigned  from the  ICSBS  - and  surprisingly  no-one  from the  ICSBS ever  wrote to me  to ask  why  .... or  perhaps  not so  surprisingly ?   )

The  bottle  posted  by  Pin looks  definitely  like  Da Yong to me :  the  way he  paints little "monk-like"  people  is very characteristic of his  typical  style.

On the  other  hand,  I agree that the 2  bottles  posted  by Mike  are a  new-ish  kind  of  style, although  I  have  seen  this style before  (if you  have  a  copy  of  my  DB  you  can find  examples )

But I  do find the  change  of  writing style  very  unusual.  In my experience,  artists   rarely  change their  writing styles

However,  please  do remember that  Da  Yong  (real  name  Zhang Yong)  participated  in one  of the  greatest  ever scams  in the past  -  whereby  he  either  he  signed  his name  on his  students' bottles,  or else  he  signed  other  artists' names  on his  students' bottles (!)

See  for example the  "great  Liu Jianghua"  scam  whereby   over  5,000  falsely- signed  bottles   were  sold to  some  gullible  collectors  in Singapore  in the  mid-late  2000s  under the  name of  Liu Jianghua (Yes I know that's  an unbelievably high number, but  it  was verified by various reliable  sources)

In fact I  myself  have  "smoking  gun"   examples  of  Da Yong  scam-signing "Liu Jianghua"  on his  students' bottles. I own several  bottles which  I know  for certain were  painted  by  Da  Yong  students  (they told me so -  e.g. Zhang Limin)  of which mirror-image  version  copies  appear  in  the  Liu Jianghua  book 

It's  very sad that this  happened  in the  past  because  it  gives  VMIPBs a  bad name.  No wonder   the  international  collecting community, especially the  ICSBS members  are reluctant to  invest  in VMIPBs

It also  leaves  one  with a  "nasty  feeling" that  if one  has  bought   some  Da  Yong bottles (as I have done), even  directly  from  Da  Yong  himself, they  may not  actually  be  painted  by him.

Two examples  from my own personal  experience :

1. I  once  bought  an very  unusual  "western landscape /  oil painting"  style  bottle  by Zhang  Yong   from David Osborne .  It was not  cheap (I paid   US$460  for it  in one of  David's  auctions).  I know for certain  that  David  always  bought in good  faith  and I have  David's  certificate  issued  by  WXS  verifying  that  the  bottle  was  painted  by Zhang  Yong,  and the  bottle  is indeed  (almost  microscopically)  signed Zhang Yong  in the  middle  of a  tree  trunk - see  pics  attached.  But  when  I once  casually  showed the  bottle  to Da  Yong  he  denied  ever  painting it !

2. The  very last  time  I ever  met  Da Yong was  in 2014   and I  went to his  home  to see  some of  his  "latest  bottles".  At the  time  I was  not  as wise  as I  (hope  I )  am now,  so when  he  showed  me  20 lovely  bottles all  painted  in a   very wide variety of  styles  and  themes  I was  (naively)  amazed and  full of  admiration. But looking back  I now  believe that  many  - if  not  most of - those  bottles  were  painted  by  other  artists, because  very few of them were typical  Da  Yong  style. See  the  attached   4 x  pics and  judge for  yourself.

In particular, one bottle  struck me  as  truly  beautiful  - it was  an abstract  landscape, which  I bought (and it was  not  cheap : I paid RMB20K ) . It's  now  bottle #P325 in my  collection

By a  very  strange coincidence  I was looking at an art  book by a famous  abstract  artist :  Zhang  Daqian  a  few  years later  and  saw - to my utter  astonishment - the  same   painting   as on the  A-side  of  my   P325 bottle .  See  the attached  pics  and  judge for yourself !

Also judge  for yourself  if the  signature is  Da  Yong's .

It is  of course possible that this bottle is by  Da Yong, but that he  copied the  A-side  from  Zhang  Daqian (the  B-side  is a  kind  of  "variation on a  theme"  of the  A-side ).  But  I think you  will  agree that  the  style  is  not  Da  Yong's, so a  more  likely  explanation is   that  a student  copied  from Zhang  Daqian and  then  Da  Yong signed  his name  on the  bottle.

Caveat emptor !

Cheers
Peter



* Zhang Yong (12.2004) Western Landscape @ David Osborne - Copy.jpg (253.65 KB, 703x934 - viewed 31 times.)

* Zhang Yong (12.2004) Western Landscape @ David Osborne.jpg (106.57 KB, 647x285 - viewed 26 times.)

* 20 bottles @ Da Yong's home (1).JPG (86.16 KB, 1024x583 - viewed 39 times.)

* 20 bottles @ Da Yong's home (2).JPG (92.61 KB, 1024x618 - viewed 41 times.)

* 20 bottles @ Da Yong's home (3).JPG (95.93 KB, 1024x602 - viewed 26 times.)

* 20 bottles @ Da Yong's home (4).JPG (92.56 KB, 1024x577 - viewed 31 times.)

* Da Yong ??= Zhang Yong ??P325(A).JPG (56.91 KB, 768x830 - viewed 34 times.)

* Autumn Morning by Zhang Daqian + Zhang Yong (A) (1).jpg (77.94 KB, 1005x768 - viewed 23 times.)

* Da Yong signature .JPG (72.64 KB, 1024x653 - viewed 20 times.)

* Zhang Yong (12.2004) signature.JPG (81.02 KB, 519x1024 - viewed 22 times.)
« Last Edit: November 20, 2017, 08:13:59 pm by Peter Bentley 彭达理 » Report Spam   Logged

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