‘Mr Shan’s Study’ in Christie’s Autumn Auction

Mr Shan’s study is not located in the mountains but has the breath of mountains and forests within it. Gardens of various sizes are not necessary in cities or mountains as long as a landscape is created indoors. Clouds and mists are not indispensable as long as the passing of time is nourished with them.

The study has paintings of landscapes, clouds, mists and intellectuals’ old dreams wandering in mountains, rivers, forests, and gardens. What a world of ink and wash! The study has imaginations belonging to the new youth with various images emerging endlessly. What a free place! The study has characters. Seeing the manuscripts of friends is like meeting them while poetic prose is well expressed by calligraphy, adding radiance and beauty to each other. The study has potteries, tea, metal, woodwares, and rocks with their shapes like mountains, rivers, and clouds, and artificial plants of such wonderful workmanship that people can’t tell whether they are real or not.

Mr Shan’s study serves for touring, viewing, and settling in. The chief use for the tour is in making the intellectual’s study a flowing space; for viewing, it is in the well decorated and attractive collections; and for settling in, it is in the return of people from the outside to settle down physically and mentally, to be still with the impression of picturesque scenery.

Wildness and leisure are found in rivers and lakes; fame and wealth, in halls; elegance, in studies. Mr Shan’s study is ancient and modern, having features of the East and the West, and it is well expressed through its taste and appreciation of design, decoration, and objects. The study is a place for collecting elegant objects. The fine quality and beauty of objects give a full expression of people’s education and affection. Mr Shan respects objects as an ancient person.
Taste and an appreciation for art speaks for a person, and they can be understood from their study and the work within it. Mr Shan’s study is his work. The choice of objects and paintings, the furnishings, the decoration and the creation of the atmosphere tell every aspect of his associations and taste.

We, born in today’s world, should not have any boundaries between the ancient and the modern as well as between China and the outside world, and this is true for Mr Shan. As a space, his study is ancient and modern, peaceful and stimulating. It is so quiet and elegant that people can sit in mediation; it is so new and inclusive that creative ideas, unusual thoughts, inventive minds of Chinese and foreign designers can all find their place. Decorations and new art can be seen on the desk and shelves, without any limitations from their Eastern or Western providence, and which are full of possibilities.

Mr Shan’s study can be moved, adapting to circumstances in cities with its changeable layout and lack of boundaries between the ancient and the modern, between China and the outside world, and between itself and stranger others. Visitors come for pottery, for ink and wash, for woodwares, for a place to keep their souls and for the quality of the times while the peace and the steadiness of Mr Shan’s study meet the demands of the visitors, harmonizing the minds and the objects, the moods and paintings, as well as people and surroundings.