Footnotes

Provenance
Private Collection, UK
Private Collection, UK (by descent from the above)
Gifted from the above to the present owner

林壽宇
方塊系列
油彩 畫布
1960年作

簽名：LIN SHOW YU，TWO SQUARE SERIES，3 - MARCH - 1960，66"x 60"（背面）

此作將收錄於由林壽宇家屬正籌備編篡的《林壽宇作品編年集》

來源
英國私人收藏
英國私人收藏（繼承自上述來源）
現藏家受贈自上述來源

Richard Lin began his artistic career in the United Kingdom in the mid 20th century. The year 1958 was a pivotal moment for the artist. Lin exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art, ICA and was discovered by Gimpel Fils Gallery. Gimpel Fils Gallery held Lin's first solo exhibition in 1959. The same year, Lin visited The New American Painting exhibition at Tate Britain. Deeply inspired by works of Post-war American Abstract Expressionist artists such as Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and Willem de Kooning, Lin has adopted a much more concise expression for his work since then.

Remembering Rothko's work, Lin said, "Rothko's paintings contain large blocks of colour, which seem to originate from somewhere far, far away, unceasing in their mellifluousness, and deeply vibrating, resounding, swaying in the heart forever".

Not only did Rothko influence Lin's approach to painting, but his works resonated with Lin on a spiritual level. Painted in 1960, Two Square Series is a landmark work from Lin's early oeuvre. Characterized by the combination of traditional Chinese ink wash painting techniques and geometric forms, various shades of ochre surrounded the precisely depicted dark squares at the bottom of the canvas. The contrast between light and dark is further accentuated through the colour and space created by the artist. The essence of Chinese landscape painting - spirit, rhythm, and resonance is vividly presented in Lin's work. The geometric form is crucial to Lin's visual representation, and its importance is evident from his early Two Square Series to his most widely acclaimed Painting Relief. The exactitude that Richard Lin commands in his use of geometric shapes and colours enables him to construct three-dimensional space on a flat canvas.

二十世紀中期，林壽宇在英國展開了藝術生涯，其中1958年更是重要的轉捩點，他於倫敦當代藝術學會舉行的展覽，引起畫廊主金貝爾・斐斯的關注，不僅成為畫廊代理藝術家，更於隔年在其畫廊舉行首次個人展覽。同年，林壽宇到倫敦泰特美術館參觀「新美國繪畫」歐洲八國巡迴展，見到當時美國戰後抽象藝術家馬克．羅斯科，羅伯特．馬瑟韋，威廉．德庫寧等人的作品，深受啟發，自此作品風格轉向更為簡潔的表現方式。

回憶起見到羅斯科作品的感受，林壽宇說：「羅斯科畫面裡面大塊的色彩，彷彿來自很遠很遠，悠揚不斷的大鼓聲深沉、渾厚，在心裡來回不停地激盪著。」羅斯科帶給林壽宇的不只是繪畫形式的啟發，更多的是精神層次的共鳴。於一九六〇年創作的《方塊系列》是林壽宇早期的代表作，其特色是中國水墨暈染技巧與幾何色塊的結合，深淺不同的赭紅色圍繞著畫面下方精準俐落的方形深色色塊，林壽宇巧妙運用色彩和空間，透過不同層次顏色濃淡的轉換、明暗虛實的互映，將中國文人畫的意境、氣韻傳神展現出來。「幾何圖形」是林壽宇作品重要的視覺元素，不論是早期《方塊系列》到最廣為人知的《繪畫浮雕》，透過對幾何圖形與色彩的精確掌控，林壽宇在平面畫布上建構出立體的三度空間。