Richard Lin, the noble figure of Eastern culture, embraced the core principle of minimalism: "Reduce and reduce again, until nothing more can be taken
away." This idea stems from the essence of Chinese minimalist philosophy: "The most complex is expressed through the simplest means." Lin’s unique
and pure painting style retains the warmth of literati thought within a framework of absolute rationality. In his works, the whiteness of emptiness also encompasses all hues. During an era when post-war abstraction reigned supreme, no one could surpass him—Richard Lin swept across the art world with unmatched force.
The present lot, Painting Relief 13 September 1965, is one of the most iconic works from Richard Lin’s celebrated "White Series" of the 1960s. The
aluminum strip elements featured in the painting are a hallmark of Lin's work since 1964. In October 1965, Lin participated in the White on White group
exhibition held at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in the United States, exhibiting alongside renowned Western masters such as Lucio Fontana, Günther Uecker, and Otto Piene. This exhibition stands as a pivotal moment in the exploration and development of post-war minimalist art.
"White itself contains many colors—its intensity, lightness, weight, transparency, and translucency... all create a wondrous interplay of forms and spaces between one shade of white and another!" —
Richard Lin, on the profound mystery of white. During his time living in the UK—just after the end of World War II—Richard Lin was immersed in the
rising tide of modernism. With a background in architecture, Lin was deeply inspired in his early years by two great modernist architects: Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), proponent of the “less is more” philosophy, and Le Corbusier (18871965), who rejected excessive ornamentation and
believed that beauty lay in pure, essential forms and celebrated the simplicity of geometric shapes. Lin’s "White Series," characterized by its minimalist,
Zen-like spatial aesthetics, embodied a profound Eastern philosophy that deeply impressed the Western art world. Even the great 20th-century
master Joan Miró once personally praised him, declaring, “In the realm of white, no one can surpass Richard Lin.”
After 1963, he adopted the name Richard Lin—a name that would soon become widely recognized in the Western art scene. In 1964, he became the
first Taiwanese artist to participate in the renowned documenta exhibition in Kassel, Germany. By 1966, he signed with Marlborough New London Gallery, placing him among the ranks of major postwar contemporary artists. His works have since been collected by more than thirty museums and
institutions worldwide, including the Tate Britain, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Italy, and the Carnegie Museum of Art in the United States, and he is listed in numerous major art reference booksRichard Lin was born in 1933 in Wufeng, Taichung, at the Gongbaodi Residence—Taiwan’s largest
official mansion since the Qing Dynasty. The Wufeng Lin family was a powerful political and aristocratic clan, ranking among Taiwan’s five great families
well into the Japanese colonial era. In 1949, Lin was sent alone to Hong Kong, where he attended Diocesan Boys' School. In 1952, he moved to
England to board at the prestigious Millfield School. By 1954, he had enrolled at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London (now the University of
Westminster), where he studied both architecture and fine art.
In his early works, traces of Abstract Expressionism remained, as seen in his Flow Series (1957–1959), which used ink-like dripping techniques to convey
the spirit of traditional Chinese landscape painting. During the 1960s, Lin transitioned toward the cooler more geometric language of cold abstraction. His renowned White Series features refined gradations of white and a distilled, contemplative aesthetic. When Richard Lin returned to Taiwan in the 1980s to settle, he caused a sensation in the local art scene—
sparking what was dubbed the “White Shock” and a wave of “Minimalist Allure.” At the time, Taiwan’sunderstanding of abstract art was largely rooted in Abstract Expressionism, exemplified by artists like
Zao Wou-Ki, with their emphasis on color layering and gestural splashes. Geometric-based cold abstraction had yet to gain mainstream recognition.
Lin’s unwavering pursuit of minimalism brought the purity of art to its fullest expression, profoundly influencing a younger generation of artists—
including Tsong Pu, Lai Tsun-Tsun, Hu Kun-Jung, and Chen Hui-Chiao—who came to regard him as a master figure. Many of these artists were part of the
creative circle centered around IT Park, which has since become a cradle for some of Taiwan’s most prominent contemporary artists