Thursday, November 1, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
At who's expense is Art made?
Understanding the topic..
___________________
Chen Wen Hsi
Worker
Western Painting
77 x 61 cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Jaring-Jaring Ikan - Fish Nets
1970
Chinese ink and colour
51 cm x 61 cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Indian Children
Chen Wen Hsi
The Ferry
Chen Wen Hsi
Malay Girls
___________________
Chen Wen Hsi
Worker
Western Painting
77 x 61 cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Jaring-Jaring Ikan - Fish Nets
1970
Chinese ink and colour
51 cm x 61 cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Indian Children
Chen Wen Hsi
The Ferry
Chen Wen Hsi
Malay Girls
Monday, October 29, 2007
global- local
____________
Four Paintings on Gibbons
Chen Wen Hsi
Playful Gibbons
Chinese ink and colour on paper
60.5 X 60.5cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Call in the Valley
Chinese ink and colour on paper
360 X 145.5cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Noon
Chinese ink and colour on paper
34.5 X 68.5cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Chinese ink and colour on paper
Playful Gibbons
304 X 106cm
His signature:
Chen Wen Hsi's signature on every piece of his work
Chen Wen Hsi
Herons
Chinese ink and colour on paper
36 X 48cm
Interstitial space
_______________
Chen Wen Hsi
Sunset Sails
Chinese ink and colour on paper
72 X 44.5cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Community
Chinese ink and colour on paper
69 X 140cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Squirrels
Chinese ink
________________
Grazing by (1965)
Oil on canvas
105 x 130 cm
The Couple, undated 1950s
Chen Wen His
Oil on Canvas
______________________
Chen Wen Hsi
Black Fields
Chinese ink and colour on paper
72X 124cm
Rothko, Mark Sienna
Orange & Black on Dark Brown
1962 Oil on canvas 193 x 175 cm
Neo tradition / Space of Authencity
____________________
Kline, Franz
Untitled
1957
Oil on canvas
200 x 158.5 cm
Kline, Franz
Painting Number 2
1954
Oil on canvas
6'8 1/2" x 8'9" (204.3 x 271.6 cm)
Chen Wen Hsi
Straighten Up
Chinese Ink on paper
69 X 137cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Tree Branches
Chinese ink and colour on paper
74.5 X 69.5cm
______________________
Piet Mondrian
Composition with large blue plane, red, black yellow and gray
1921
Chen Wen Hsi
Blue and Red
Chinese ink and colour on paper
42.5 X 63cm
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Thoughts about translation
Understanding Key Issues
The concept map depicts the connections of translation, where it is not only applicable to language, but also to the study of art. Translation in Art takes place when its techniques, styles and perspectives experience high fluidity in crossing country borders. (The East influenced even aspects of western Art- slower pace of development in futurism) In this reflection, translation of Western Art, which is evident in Chen Wen Hsi’s works will be analysed, by looking especially at the formal analysis of his works.
The Nanyang Style
Chen is a versatile painter who never fails to stop exploring. With his exposure to both Chinese ink painting and Western art movements, he combines the elements to achieve the Nanyang style, which was unique to SE Asians.
Chen’s interpretation of “East meets West”
Herons, 1990
Chen Wen Hsi
Chinese ink and colour on paper
Morning in the Village after Snowstorm (Utro posle v'iugi v derevne), 1912
Kazimir Malevich,
Oil on canvas
31 3/4 x 31 7/8 inches
'Herons' shows the influence of Futurism, where movements of objects were fragmented, and segmented; several impressions of the herons were painted with echoes of lines and volumes. However, Chen avoided the mimesis by painting the composition in Chinese ink, using conservative colours like dull shades of red, green, with generous white negative spaces, using outlining with black and white strokes, which has the characteristics of “fei bai”; the random white spaces left behind by spontaneous brushes strokes in Chinese paintings.
Western elements in Nanyang style
The Couple, undated 1950s
Chen Wen His
Oil on Canvas
André Derain, 1905
Henri Matisse
oil on canvas
46.0 x 34.9 cm
Self-portrait, 1907
Picasso, Pablo
In 'the couple', which he did in Bali, bright colours were used to depict the decorative styles of SE Asian Art, which reminds me of the vivid, non-naturalistic and exuberant colours of Fauvists. Bold, expressive brushstrokes were evident too and lines were drawn to create angular forms to resemble that of Cubism’s.
The concept map depicts the connections of translation, where it is not only applicable to language, but also to the study of art. Translation in Art takes place when its techniques, styles and perspectives experience high fluidity in crossing country borders. (The East influenced even aspects of western Art- slower pace of development in futurism) In this reflection, translation of Western Art, which is evident in Chen Wen Hsi’s works will be analysed, by looking especially at the formal analysis of his works.
The Nanyang Style
Chen is a versatile painter who never fails to stop exploring. With his exposure to both Chinese ink painting and Western art movements, he combines the elements to achieve the Nanyang style, which was unique to SE Asians.
Chen’s interpretation of “East meets West”
Herons, 1990
Chen Wen Hsi
Chinese ink and colour on paper
Morning in the Village after Snowstorm (Utro posle v'iugi v derevne), 1912
Kazimir Malevich,
Oil on canvas
31 3/4 x 31 7/8 inches
'Herons' shows the influence of Futurism, where movements of objects were fragmented, and segmented; several impressions of the herons were painted with echoes of lines and volumes. However, Chen avoided the mimesis by painting the composition in Chinese ink, using conservative colours like dull shades of red, green, with generous white negative spaces, using outlining with black and white strokes, which has the characteristics of “fei bai”; the random white spaces left behind by spontaneous brushes strokes in Chinese paintings.
Western elements in Nanyang style
The Couple, undated 1950s
Chen Wen His
Oil on Canvas
André Derain, 1905
Henri Matisse
oil on canvas
46.0 x 34.9 cm
Self-portrait, 1907
Picasso, Pablo
In 'the couple', which he did in Bali, bright colours were used to depict the decorative styles of SE Asian Art, which reminds me of the vivid, non-naturalistic and exuberant colours of Fauvists. Bold, expressive brushstrokes were evident too and lines were drawn to create angular forms to resemble that of Cubism’s.
Friday, September 7, 2007
HIs works
Gibbon
Ink and Watercolour
13 in X 13 in
Grazing by (1965)
Oil on canvas
105 x 130 cm
In the musuem (1956)
Oil on canvas.
175 x 175 cm.
Herons (1990)
Chinese ink and colour
157 x 297 cm
Chen Wen Hsi
Short introduction
Chen Wen Hsi (Dr) was born in 1906, Guangdong, China. He was enrolled in Hsin Hwa Art Academy in Shanghai, under the tutorage of famous lecturers like Pan Tian Shou. It was then he forged strong friendships with other pioneering artists and art educationist in Singapore like him, such as Liu Kang, Chen Jen Hao and Chen Chong Swee. Leaving China in 1947, he traveled through Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia before arriving and settling in Singapore in 1948, where he taught in both NAFA and Chinese High School. He held 38 one-man exhibitions, in local and international locations, namely Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, London and Beijing, between 1923 and 1993.
Six decades of Art life, Chen wen Hsi is an artist who embodies the best of both eastern and Western art. He was proficient in various mediums, ranging from traditional Chinese ink to western oil painting. In addition, he was actively engaged in exploring a variety of styles including fauvism and cubism.
Why interesting?
His works embodied the Nanyang style where classical Chinese and Western influences unify together with the unique rich cultures and diverse ethnicity of South East Asia. His works are interestingly innovative where he explores these fusions to forge an art form with local identity. With this, he painted many powerful and varied compositions, ranging from still-lifes, where subjects revolved around nature and his surroundings, to paintings which explores various cultures and mediums, and to synthesis of western modern art and Chinese painting techniques with abstract art forms.
Aspects to zoom into..
I would look closely at The Nanyang style, where he used western aesthetics and techniques to supplement traditional Chinese art, to achieve the overall beauty and cohesion of his paintings.
Secondly, I would zoom into his choice of subjects for observation to represent the “local flavour” and their link to primitivism.
(300 words)
Chen Wen Hsi (Dr) was born in 1906, Guangdong, China. He was enrolled in Hsin Hwa Art Academy in Shanghai, under the tutorage of famous lecturers like Pan Tian Shou. It was then he forged strong friendships with other pioneering artists and art educationist in Singapore like him, such as Liu Kang, Chen Jen Hao and Chen Chong Swee. Leaving China in 1947, he traveled through Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia before arriving and settling in Singapore in 1948, where he taught in both NAFA and Chinese High School. He held 38 one-man exhibitions, in local and international locations, namely Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, London and Beijing, between 1923 and 1993.
Six decades of Art life, Chen wen Hsi is an artist who embodies the best of both eastern and Western art. He was proficient in various mediums, ranging from traditional Chinese ink to western oil painting. In addition, he was actively engaged in exploring a variety of styles including fauvism and cubism.
Why interesting?
His works embodied the Nanyang style where classical Chinese and Western influences unify together with the unique rich cultures and diverse ethnicity of South East Asia. His works are interestingly innovative where he explores these fusions to forge an art form with local identity. With this, he painted many powerful and varied compositions, ranging from still-lifes, where subjects revolved around nature and his surroundings, to paintings which explores various cultures and mediums, and to synthesis of western modern art and Chinese painting techniques with abstract art forms.
Aspects to zoom into..
I would look closely at The Nanyang style, where he used western aesthetics and techniques to supplement traditional Chinese art, to achieve the overall beauty and cohesion of his paintings.
Secondly, I would zoom into his choice of subjects for observation to represent the “local flavour” and their link to primitivism.
(300 words)
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