Chen Wenji

signed in Chinese and Pinyin, titled in Chinese and dated 2009 on the reverse

Eastation Gallery, Beijing
Acquired by the present owner from the above

China, Beijing, Eastation Gallery, 09 Chen Wenji Recent Works, 31 October - 30 December 2009, cover, p. 46

Central Academy of Fine Arts Annual Fine Arts Nomination Exhibition – 2010 Chen Wenji, Shanghai Fine Art Publishing, Shanghai, China, 2010, p. 113

This work is generally in good condition. There are minor wear and handling around the edges. There is no sign of restoration under UV light.
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Having graduated in 1978 from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Chen Wenji is currently Professor of the Academy's Mural Painting Department. Over his artistic career that has already spanned over three decades, Chen Wenji has maintained a detached position from the set rules of Chinese art history.  His works possess a certain metaphysical quality, and he places a strong emphasis on "the world of individuals, the nature of solitude, the metropolitan environment that influences him, the works' stylistic features, as well as their tranquil, poetic nature."¹ From his early works, in which his advanced ability in representational paintings are aptly displayed, through to his later works whose images give an illusory effect imbued with abstract meanings, Chen Wenji is highly accomplished in the treatment of space and object as well as the vocabularies of minimalism and abstractionism. He is a rare yet extremely important artist in the world of Contemporary Chinese art.

Described as a "quiet revolution" by art critic Li Xianting, Chen's works have gone through several stages of artistic evolution. The first stage portrays a daily living world (an expression in the form of still life), which then transitioned into the second stage - the natural world, of expressive landscapes imbued with a heightened sense of reality, through to the in-depth exploration or even exhaustion of the value of the two-dimensional space (artistically advanced and characterised by a minimalistic style), Chen Wenji's artistic evolution is drastically subversive yet simultaneously a continual, organic development along a long and silent stretch of road. Regarding the "revolution theory" on his art, Chen said with a smile, "I don't have the ambition of a revolution. I'm merely following my internal voice and calling to pursue the purity of forms." ²

Brimful is a representative piece in his pursuit of the purity of form. The calm and quiet red is stained and transformed into a bowl of optical illusion, as if it encompasses and integrates together all living beings and objects on earth. "Generally speaking, throughout my process of thinking and expression, I have stressed that the act of painting is not very important. For me, the two-dimensional presentation is an important focus of my thoughts, because it allows me to discover new presentation methods and new languages. On the two-dimensional space, it can highlight more clearly the factors influencing the nature of human civilisation," he said. With an exceptional ability to create shapes and forms, Chen Wenji fabricates almost magically the concrete experience and possibilities of the three-dimensional within the two-dimensional space. This is no mere skill. It reflects the precise and free inter-exchanges and amalgamation of the Western domain of ideas and the Zen philosophy of the East. American art critic Susan Sontag has expressed the following when viewing Chen's works: "They are so unified and clear externally, the speed at which their approach is rapid, their implications so direct, hence they could only be... using his own art to avoid its interpreters." ³

1 Wen Chen, Indeterminate Objects: On the Nature of Things in Chen Wenji's Painting

2 Libin Liu, Description is Content – Removing "Meanings" Added to Works of Chen Wenji

3 Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation and Other Essays