Hong Kong – The works of Chinese contemporary art icon Liu Ye are instantly recognisable for their bright-hued and stylised images, often in the form of female figures. They straddle both the emotive and the rational, with fairy tale imagery presented through strict lines and philosophical exactitude in execution. Bonhams will present two major works by Liu Ye – Hello, Mondrian and She is so Beautiful – at the upcoming Modern and Contemporary Art sale on Thursday 25 November in Hong Kong.

Liu Ye's father was a writer of children's literature, and his works often depict children in a form of fantasy world – a world where he himself finds refuge. Having studied in Berlin in the 1990s before returning to China in 1995, Liu Ye's work is infused with both Eastern and Western influences, with a deep appreciation for art historical traditions.

Completed in 2002 and offered fresh to the market, Hello, Mondrian (Estimate: HK$8,000,000-12,000,000) is an exceptional work which exemplifies Liu Ye's artistic vision. His style is steeped in Modernism, and in this work, he pays tribute to Dutch master of abstraction, Piet Mondrian, who strove for order and equilibrium in simplicity of lines and colour. Hello, Mondrian captures geometric order and balance. The girl is depicted as the sum of Klee-esque geometric shapes, framed by clear lines, and filled with primary colours and peaceful tones. Building upon art historical traditions, it is a work of quiet beauty on the edge between reality and fantasy.

The 'Mondrianic' logic behind the use of colour and space can also be found in She is so Beautiful (Estimate: HK$5,000,000-7,000,000), which envelops the subject with a simple soft-toned background to imbue a sense of mystique, intimacy, balance, grace and peaceful quietude. Liu Ye is not projecting his own fantasies on the female gender, nor is he trying to visualise his obsession with the female body. To him, they are the medium on which the artist can manifest the ideals of human beauty, like the Roman goddess who is the embodiment of love and beauty. Unlike many of his female nude portraits created between 2002 and 2006, She is so Beautiful embodies forthrightness and confidence without a hint of pretentiousness. The subject gazes at the viewer intently from a female perspective, subverting the relationship between the subject and the viewer.

Other highlights of the sale include:

• Banksy (B. 1975), Girl with Ice Cream on Palette. Estimate: HK$5,000,000 - 7,000,000. Always a vicious opponent of mass media and casual consumerism, Banksy's Girl with Ice Cream on Palette presents the young as being sold aggression instead of innocence, war instead of play, all exploding in a flash of hot pink. It is signature Banksy: provocative, bitingly satirical, and paradoxically tender.

• Richard Lin (Lin Show-Yu, 1933-2011), Parallel Form (Green and White). Estimate: HK$800,000 - 1,200,000. A seminal work representing the pinnacle of Lin's oeuvre in its awareness to material, mathematical precision, and geometric abstraction. On the encompassing white background are precisely measured lines and blocks evenly aligned in an orderly concision. The work draws viewers to a realm of tranquillity and soliloquy, guiding us with new sensations as we examine the spatial relationship between light and dark, flatness and depth.

• Liu Ye (B. 1964), Untitled – Pencil. Estimate: HK$450,000 - 650,000.

• T'ang Haywen (1927-1991), Untitled. Estimate: HK$400,000 - 600,000.