Artwork Appreciation
HOU Jhong-Ying excels at meticulous realism. The primary theme of his painting is hands densely covered with lines by which he explains the complex phenomena of the larger world around him. He sees hands as a microcosm of man, and by combining their actions and poses the artist expresses man’s outer behavior and his inner spiritual feelings.
In The Summit of the Blade palms are gathered together in a blade-like peak. These palms symbolize the kinetic energy of life and represent man’s power of action.
Hou feels that hands are an important organ of the body when it comes to having contact with the outer world. The artist uses macro photography to see what the naked eye cannot distinguish and with great precision paints the flexible and changeable hands, exploring man’s fate and interpersonal relationships in this fast-changing society.