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Sword. Liu Ye (刘野). Oil and Acrylic on Canvas. 2001-2002.

“I came of age in a world covered in red, red suns, red flags, red kerchiefs; even the green pines, blue cypresses, and sunflowers were just foils to this red cover.” —Liu Ye

Returning to China in the 90s after studying abroad in Germany, Liu Ye was forced to face a time of painful changes and social unrest, which seems to be an unsurprising reason for him to seek refuge in the unreachable “golden time” of his childhood. The background of Sword borrows from Song Dynasty painting styles. Two little girls, bathed in an overwhelming flood of redness, their stoicism dissipating in one moment. Antagonism grows in a liminal apocalypse stillness and is planted into the composition by the artist through distanced exploration of a realm beyond humanity. Yet its grandeur seems also to render the fragility of the little girls all the more simple and particularly heartrending.

Liu Ye’s works have topped $5 million at auction in China, but his paintings haven’t been offered at the New York auction houses of Christie’s, Phillips, or Sotheby’s in nearly a decade. At the most recent Art Basel in Hong Kong, his Book Painting No. 6(2014–15) sold in the opening hours for $350,000.

Yayoi Kasuma Festival of Life Zwirner