{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":3508,"auction_id":6,"set_id":8,"lot_number":"108","artist":"Lao Lianben (b. 1948)","title":"Liquid Light","starting_price":1600000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2003 (lower left and verso)","medium":"acrylic and graphite on paper","size":"72\" x 45\" (183 cm x 114 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Private Collection, Hong Kong","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"\"All know the way, but few actually walk it.”<br /><br />\n“But people of the deepest understanding look within, distracted \nby nothing. Since a clear mind is the Buddha, they attain the \nunderstanding of a Buddha without using the mind.”<br /><br />\n– BODHIDHARMA, 5 TH/6 TH CENTURY, \nLEGENDARY FOUNDER OF ZEN BUDDHISM<br /><br /> Lao Lianben’s Liquid Light is a spiritual landscape of harmony, wisdom, purity, and enlightenment. In this piece, Lao invites the viewer to converse with one’s inner spirit and embark on a journey from the corporeal and temporal toward the sublime metaphysical.<br /><br />In Liquid Light, blackness pervades the composition, with small “crevices” revealing patches of white.<br /><br />Black is a color usually associated with mourning and suffering. In Buddhist art, its symbolism does not veer far away; it represents the primordial darkness.<br /><br />In the center, a narrow line of luminous white seemingly tries to break out of the darkness, slowly unfolding its sphere of spiritual stillness and serenity. Here is a path towards the harmony of all things, the consummate realization of all struggles and contradictions, the fulfilling way to satori, which is the unexplainable and enigmatic state of sudden intuitive enlightenment, the ultimate goal of Zen Buddhism.<br /><br />Much like Lao’s character, the composition is imbued with enigmatic quietism. The artist emboldens us to lose ourselves in the darkness of our inner selves, navigate through the cascading streams of the conscious and subconscious, and find within the vast turbulent ocean of conflicts that elusive yet fulfilling reservoir of awakening lucidity and wisdom. In line with Lao’s artistic praxis, one may achieve this in the company of persistent and enduring contemplation, even in the midst of the hustle and bustle of everyday activities.<br /><br />As the legendary founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma once said: “Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen. To know that the mind is empty is to see the Buddha.... Using the mind to reality is a delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation.” <br /><br />Lao’s paintings, as exemplified by Liquid Light, encourage seeing as a way of profound introspection and a deep deliberation of all things and ideas colliding, thus enkindling in oneself that ability to see the transcendent gateway towards spiritual growth and enlightenment. The 13th-century Japanese Zen philosopher and priest D?gen said, “Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.” (A.M.)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":3400000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":3400000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":3971200,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":3731,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/6/8/lot/108.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":3732,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/6/8/lot/108a.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"increment":[2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":107,"next":109,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}