Author: MA KE 马轲

Size: 72×59cm

Signed and dated: Painted in 2002

Estimate: 60,000 -120,000

Final Price: RMB 200,000

LITERATURE
2006 Chinese art-Ma Ke's album 1995-2004 works review / Cover Page / China Art Press
signed in Pinyin and dated 5.6
In the paintings of Chinese contemporary art, Ma Ke has attracted much attention because of his strange and introverted plane image, his language form wandering between abstract and concrete, and his profound and obscure symbolism. Facing the constant iteration of contemporary art, Ma Ke has never been an opportunist who drifts with the tide and plays with creativity. From beginning to end, he used the introspection and determination of traditional Chinese scholars to control his creation. Through his keen insight into personal experience and contemporary society, he created an artistic space full of imagination and metaphor. For Ma Ke , artists do not have the privilege or ability to become prophets, nor do they provide values or moral judgments. Instead, he provides a way to see the world, which depends on the choice of the audience. 'As for the stories in the works, whether they are available or not, they are a simple way for the audience to enter the picture.' From several series of creations since the late 1990s, it is clear that Ma Ke is not concerned with the theme and plot of his works, but with the dialogue with the audience.
Ma Ke's artistic career began in the 1990s. After graduating from the oil painting department of Tianjin Academy of fine arts, Ma Ke seconded the Ministry of culture to East Africa for one year in 1998. This trip to East Africa undoubtedly had an important impact on his entire artistic career. On the one hand, the painter drew inspiration from the long-standing traditional art in Africa, and at the same time, he experienced the fragility of life and the suffering of the world in the life and death separation of war - from then on, the impermanence of fate has become the constant spiritual core in his works. This Portrait (Lot 1091) was created around 2000. Undoubtedly, it also uses the modeling method of African sculpture for reference. The characters are summarized into simple geometric shapes, the face is elongated, and the facial features are exaggerated and deformed. The colors are pure, simple and bold, full of primitive customs. Here, the artist does not pursue the lifelike image and the presentation of details, but endows the characters with a fresh inner life by freehand brushwork.
After entering the millennium, the image of 'horse' has become a symbol in Ma Ke's artistic creation. At this time, the horse under the painter's pen has gradually got rid of its physical attributes and become a spiritual representation. The artist reflects different emotional states through the horse in various actions, angles and situations, which can be seen as the visual mirror image of the painter at different stages of life. The Book Series - Black (Lot 1092), created in 2006, depicts a static scene: the character is immersed in reading, and the horse is taking a nap beside him. The content of the picture reminds people of the classic theme of traditional ink painting, the Return of Herdsmen. However, under Ma Ke's pen, the atmosphere of idyllic pastoral and returning to nature in ink painting has disappeared, and has evolved into endless anxiety in the process of modernization of the city. The artist disassembles and reorganizes the objects in the painting by means of Cubism, and constructs a new spatial order. The head, body and tail of the horse are decomposed into several geometric blocks, forming an inverted triangle in the painting. The figure is just at the center of the triangle. The black horse forms a strong contrast with the large white background. In order to highlight the characters, the artist also draws a semicircular red circle around the characters, which is similar to the backlight of saints in Western religious paintings. The abrupt strokes drawn on the horse further increase the absurdity of the picture. Through the creative expression of 'reading', the artist profoundly reveals the strong tension and tear between the material and spirit, the external world and the individual's heart in contemporary life.
Since 2008, Ma Ke has gradually started the transformation and promotion of narrative style. As a result, the artist began to pay more attention to the fission of the surrounding real life and the times, and the classic symbol 'horse' gradually faded out of his picture. The 'sandstorm' series created in 2012 shows Ma Ke's concern for environmental issues. Sandstorm is a weather phenomenon in wind erosion desertification. Its formation is affected by both natural factors and human activities. In this work, the artist does not deliberately show the speed of strong winds and the invasion of sand and dust, but emphasizes the great invasion of sudden disasters on human psychology. The painter painted a huge background with large areas of black and yellow brown, rendering a depressing and dignified picture. The black hole like background is covered with swirling red purple blocks. The superposition and infiltration of several color blocks effectively render the chaos and pollution of the dust weather. At this time, the home hidden in the dust has been destroyed and become a desolate ruin. The characters on the right seem to be struggling with inner pain, so they could only wait and see but have nothing to do. In the Sand Storm (Lot 1093), Ma Ke continued his symbolic expressive painting language full of explosive force, with simple and strong colors and simple and vivid shapes. Here, the artist depicts a broken and sad scene of the end of the world in a highly generalized and full of tension, which is undoubtedly a strong warning to human beings for the excessive abuse and destruction of the natural world.