APPEARANCE OF CROSSES 91-11

In the 1980s, social and cultural criticism were popular subject matters among Chinese artists, who also drew inspiration from traditional Chinese painting techniques or modern Western artworks. Finding these mainstream trends boring, Ding Yi said, “(I) believe I have to keep a distance with both traditional Chinese culture and early Western Modernism, so that I can return to the origin of art and truly start from zero.” He gave up all narrative content and created his personal visual language by systematically creating, overlapping and repeating numerous “crosses” symbols, which have evolved continuously for three decades.

The “crosses” sign replicated in this work came from the reticulation used in the colour process of printing. The sign has no symbolic or associative meaning for the artist, which grants itself great power of pursuing a pure expression in terms of line, colour, and structure. From 1990s onwards, Ding Yi stopped using scale when he painted. Although the motif was inspired by printing technology, Appearance Of Crosses 91-11 (Lot 116) showcases a hand-drawn style, rather than lifeless repetition and mechanical precision. The crosses spread out on the canvas like a net and add some random variation to the well-ordered composition, reflecting the artist’s idea of “precision in freedom”.