Chen Zhen

Executed in 1999.

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity

Art and Public, Geneva
Acquired directly from the above by the current owner

Left drum see cracks, paint loss and minor chipping; right drum see rust of the metal and two cracks. The chair see general wear and tear which is coherent with the medium of the work. Otherwise in good condition
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Chen Zhen (1955-2000) graduated from the Shanghai Academy of Theatre and moved to France to study in 1986. After settling in Paris, at age 25, he contracted hemolytic anemia. Doctors told him he had just five years to live, but he managed tenaciously to avoid the grasp of this deadly disease. Much of his oeuvre draws on his thinking about disease, and is in one sense a way that he resisted his illness. He died of cancer in 2000, widely recognized as one of the most outstanding contemporary Chinese artists in the world. His death evinced the sympathy of the global art world, as artists and art institutions everywhere held memorial services to commemorate this outstanding artist who died tragically young.

Disease left an indelible imprint on Chen Zhen's life and work. His physical weakness served only to strengthen his indomitable will, and to trigger his exuberant creativity. Artistic creation for him was both a way of self-medicating, and a vehicle for a noble attempt to cure the entire world. For him, the world was a massive body, in need of treatment. In his early work, Chen Zhen already perceived a crisis of environment and material, sensitive to the way in which in an era of unbridled consumerism, the relationship between objects and nature had been so thoroughly abused. Chen Zhen's early works raise a critique of this abuse perpetrated by consumerism. He documented and displayed the violent process by which objects and environments were shaped by human hands. Abandoned, remaindered, destroyed, wasted, the world showed Chen Zhen its overconsumed side, appearing to him as a sickly body. This was Chen Zhen's first worry.

As he got further into French life, his understanding of Western culture gradually deepened, sparking his interest in its discrepancies and unities. Many of his works explore the possibilities for understanding and misunderstanding between East and West. In reality, the lack of mutual understanding between different people and different cultures is a major social illness. Conflict, division, harm, violence, and war often derive from this lack of understanding. If we say that in his earlier period, Chen Zhen worried over the sick state of the material world, in this later period he began to worry over the culture illnesses of the world, and over the obstacles to understanding among people. In this period, he realized a number of works on the subject of harmony, communication, and exchange (including his famous round tables).

In his final period, Chen Zhen clarified his mission: he would become a doctor in his final days. He would be a doctor in many senses, treating the illnesses of man, the natural environment, culture, and society. In the end, he was a doctor in the most intellectual sense, treating the world. Chen Zhen saw this as a god-given mission, preparing many proposals, and completing several major works, such as his Garden of Zen.

Un-interrupted Voice (Lot 707) and Chair of Concentration (Lot 708) are important works that shed light Chen Zhen's artistic style. In Un-interrupted Voice, Chen Zhen used cowhides to wrap chairs. Why was the piece so titled? Because this form of wrapping actually turned the chairs into a special kind of drum, waiting for someone to beat it. Beating drums was a form of treatment that interested Chen Zhen, a special form of release, capable of releasing pent-up energies and crating a new balance. Different from other forms of release, drum-beating can make noise as it creates release, and this noise has music, creating resonance, building morale, inspiring excitement. In this sense, the beating of drums is not a form of merely release—it is a path to transcendence, a venue where power and spirit make themselves known. This is a dual process of arousing life. Formally speaking, this work is incredibly precise, the chairs suspended sideways, their legs and backs curving upward, as if dancing. The metal rack supporting the chairs is slender and long, ramrod straight, forming a direct contrast with the curving arcs of the chairs, rendering the work at once romantic and poetic.

Chair of Concentration makes use of a commode. This was a material commonly used by Chen Zhen. Such commodes were often used in his native Shanghai. For the sick, washing with water is extremely important as the body needs to be clean. The commode here makes a joyous noise, a veritable sonata of cleanliness. These sounds seem to smile, rinsing away illness and expressing optimism, as if laughing at disease. Formally speaking, the work is similarly ingenious. Two commodes hang from the top of a Chinese chair, symmetrical and juxtaposed, caught in continuous dialogue. This is not a quiet work, but rather a "living" work. No matter how much noise they make, the chair holding them up cannot move, its concentration unbroken. Here we see not only the cleansing, healing power of water, but also the possibilities and impossibilities of using sound for communication and understanding.

Among contemporary Chinese artists, Chen Zhen was unique. Extremely well read, attentive to society, and deeply interested in philosophy and cultural politics, he was an intellectual artist. His works maintain a sense of social critique and convey a strong sense of mission. This differentiates him from the Political Pop and Cynical Realist styles once popular in Chinese contemporary art. His critical interventions grow out of hope; among Chinese artists there is no one more optimistic. His works thus carry an air of vigor and gravity. Even when they deal with illness and the body, they remain aestheticized and fastidious. Chen Zhen refused orientalist taste; his works transcend the mutual circumspection of East and West, a fact that derives from his pure thinking. He engages with questions from a globalist perspective, focusing on questions that face all of humanity. In dealing with these questions, his works take on a direct and penetrable power. In this sense, his works are utterly pure, relying not on some special set of symbols, conventional codes, or cultural spectacles to gain the "attention" of the West. This is to say that Chen Zhen's creation never relied on "strategic" maneuvers or techniques, but on a deep investigation of the problems facing humanity. In this regard, he was extremely confident. Optimistic, confident, and healthy, Chen Zhen's style was astounding, particularly coming as it did from a man who suffered so long from illness.