de Sarthe Gallery Art Basel Hong Kong 2016 presents Essential Red (booth 3D13)

Featuring:

James Lee Byars, Alexander Calder, Chu Teh-Chun, Lin Jingjing, Ma Sibo, Joan Miró, Robert Motherwell, Gerhard Richter, Shiraga Kazuo, T’ang Haywen, Tanaka Atsuko, Umae Chiyu, Wang Guofeng, Wang Xin, Yoshihara Jirō, Zao Wou-ki.

de Sarthe Gallery presents Essential Red, an exhibition that showcases artists’ exploration of the color red throughout the West and the East, from modern to contemporary. “Few colours have been so heavily freighted with symbolic resonances as red.” (John Cage, Color and Meaning: Art Science, and Symbolism, 2000). Most art historical theory or interpretation is still written from the perspective of Western principles. Going back to the basic filter of color opens this perspective. Color interpretation varies from different cultures and times. From the earliest period of artistic production, red has always been an essential color, whether associated with happiness in China or with all meanings of passion in the West. Artists have used this prized pigment with different degrees of measure, from monochrome to a simple dash in all media. To give a broader visual experience of this color in art, de Sarthe showcases side by side works by Western icons such as Joan Miró in Europe, or Alexander Calder in America, to Japanese master Yoshihara Jirō, or Chinese painters in Paris (Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun and T’ang Haywen) to illustrate some 20th century explorations of the color. From the 21st century, the most recent works by Lin Jingjing, Ma Sibo, Wang Guofeng and Wang Xin, all Chinese artists with training in and experience of the West, hence truly global, will be featured.