LUO QINGZHE (Lo Ch'ing, 1948 –). Life in a Taxi, signed and dated 1980, with a title slip written by the artist, Chinese hanging scroll painting, ink and colour on paper, 132 x 62cm. Provenance: from the collection of Gordon Aldrick (1935 – 2020), acquired directly from the artist, who he counted as a close personal friend. Aldrick had several works by the artist of which this was the largest and most significant work and he considered one of the treasures of his collection. 羅青哲 《計程車的過客》 設色紙本 立軸 款識：命運是一條顛踬灰暗的路，兩旁的風景有時殘缺，有時圓滿。而我們都是計程車中的過客，身不由己，不斷而前行。遐距離計程，時間也計程，車費則一定要用生命來支付。六十九年，青哲 藏印：「水墨齋」「羅青」 簽條：計程人生。一九八零年，羅青。 來源：從戈登·奧爾德里克(1935 -2020)收藏，從藝術家处获得，并且也是艺术家的好友。 奧德里克有数幅罗青的作品，这幅是其中尺寸最大且最珍贵的画作。 Born in Qingdao, Lo moved to Taiwan in 1949 and has been a professor of both Literature and Fine Arts at universities in Taiwan, the UK and the US. He studied classical Chinese painting under Pu Ru (1896 – 1963), cousin to the last Emperor of China. In the traditional guise he combines paintings, calligraphy and poetry in his works, and indeed his reputation as a poet is perhaps unsurpassed among his contemporaries. He was one of only a very few contemporary Taiwanese artists included in the landmark British Museum exhibition ‘Modern Chinese Ink Paintings’ in 2012. This piece is on a scale rare for such an early piece, and beautifully displays the play with empty space, geometric forms and distorted perspectives that characterise the very best of his early work.