Lot 64
  • 64

Chen Fei

Estimate
250,000 - 350,000 RMB
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Description

  • Chen Fei
  • Ambition
  • acrylic on canvas
titled and signed in Chinese, dated 2009 on the reverse

Provenance

Private Collection, China
Hanhai, Beijing, 11 November, 2010, lot 1374

Exhibited

China, Beijing, Star Gallery, From Zero to Hero, 5 September to 20 October 2009
China, Beijing, Today Art Museum, Stranger: Chen Fei Solo Exhibition, 19 to 30 November 2011

Condition

This work is overall in very good condition, with some slight wears along the edges.
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Catalogue Note

Belonging to the post-1980s generation, Chen Fei is a rising star in today's art scene. Through exploration and experimentation, he has endeavored to find his unique artistic language.  Unlike a lot of the artists today, Chen Fei graduated from the Beijing Film Academy. His unusual educational background has paved the road for his narrative and the cinematic features that are now apparent in his work. The period between his graduation in 2005 and 2008 can be regarded as the first stage of his artistic career during which he explored gender issues, violence and films, mostly drawing from real life. He chose to leave empty areas on the canvas in the way manga artists do to give a clean and neutral effect Between 2008 and 2012, Chen Fei's experiences and understanding of life and society has matured. This period can be seen as the second stage of his artistic career. In comparison to his earlier period, works from this stage usually have backgrounds filled with exquisite details and his subjects tell their stories in whimsical and imaginative settings.

The present work Ambition is an important piece from this stage of the artist's oeuvre. The structure of the composition is simple with a background of dark blue, as if it spells the loneliness of the city. The canvas is divided up with the railings on the balcony beyond which lies a metropolis on a brilliantly illuminated night where stars and neon lights compete for glory. In front of the railings, we see a little dog from the back, with its elongated shadow under the moonlight. The scene is both familiar and touching. Every survivor in the city shares a similar story. They climb up high, overlooking the world, with a determined heart and mighty aspiration.

The composition can be compared with Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer overlooking the Sea of Fog, a masterpiece from the German Romantic Movement of the 19th Century. In this work by Friedrich, a man stands firmly at the top of the rocks. Although we cannot see his face, his solitude can still be felt. Even the sublime seascape seems inferior to his dominating and unshakable position. In Ambition, the subject is considerably smaller and more delicate. The skyscrapers outside are overwhelming and stifling. Perhaps the artist is using it as a mockery to heroism.

Chen Fei has also drawn inspiration from the colour scheme of Van Gogh's Starry Night and covered the canvas in different shades of blue. However, Chen Fei has not imitated the Dutch master's animated, blue, curvy clouds . Instead, he created a cold and introverted metropolis. Besides the little dog, the composition is filled almost entirely with grids and lines, all the more hinting at the void and loneliness of a vast city.