Chen Wen Hsi in Saigon
From: Grace Chew <gclchew@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: May 2, 2006 6:14 AM
Subject: [Vsg] Chen Wen Hsi in Saigon
Dear List:
An acquaintance of mine wants to find out if anyone
in VSG is aware of any writing on this artist in
Saigon. He was in Saigon probably from 1946 yo 1948,
and came to Singapore after his sojourn in Vietnam.
----------------------------------------------------
Chen Wen Hsi by Liu Xilin
Chen Wen Hsi lived in China for the first forty years
of his life, and in Singapore for the next forty. The
art of his native land fed and nurtured him so that he
could contribute to the development of art in other
parts of the world. Half of his artistic output may
be broadly divided into two categories, Chinese
painting and oil painting.
Chen’s Chinese painting is distinctive in that he
applied Western methods of artistic expression in
terms of vision, form and composition to traditional
Chinese art, thereby creating a personal style and
identity. He was unafraid to experiment with new
techniques or explore unconventional ideas. For
instance, in his paintings of egrets, he deliberately
distorted proportion by giving the birds elongated
bodies much like the tall and slender figures found in
the paintings of Italian artist, Modigliani. The
exaggerated proportions, which heighten the artistic
sense of the viewers, allow Chen to expose their
unique beauty and grace. Likewise, his gibbons, for
which he is famed, are active creatures. Their
bountiful energy and lively antics give a strong sense
of rhythm to the paintings.
Chens’sophisticated treatment of surface, line and
point, which represent another departure from
tradition, is seen in his many paintings, particularly
those of birds and other animals. For instance in one
painting, shaped in a square, the entire surface is
filled with a flock of egrets, standing in their
distorted forms in the foreground. Painted in ochre
and ink, the whiteness of the feathers is marked by
the faint ink in the background, like the reverse
white effect in a print. The painting impresses with
its brushstrokes, ink tones, and the juxtaposition of
real and virtual spaces, which reveal a structure that
is akin to Western abstract painting. In another
painting, Xipan Qunya (???? Ducks by the Stream),
the bamboo fence on the left side of the painting is
rendered in swift and concise strokes, while from the
flock of black ducks on the right emerge two yellow
ones. This is clearly the technique of a colour
constructionist who also achieves harmony between form
and technique by converting the object into surface
and line, or a magnified point, so that it integrates
organically with the overall composition. While the
silhouetted profiles of the ducks are treated as the
surface in this painting, the rocks in Shi Shan (??
Rocky Hill) form the surface, as they are viewed from
the top in a flat formation void of distance or depth.
The very contemporary form, composition and techniques
used in these paintings clearly show the influence of
modern abstract art in Chen’s work. What he did was
to take the abstraction inherent in Chinese painting
and exploited it so that the subjective consciousness
already found in literati painting was strengthened.
In this way he modernised Chinese painting, skillfully
retaining the traditional use of calligraphic
brushstrokes to depict likeness and unlikeness in form
,while liberalising it through bold experimentation in
Western techniques...
Best wishes,
Grace
From: C. David Thomas <cdavidthomas@yahoo.com>
Date: May 2, 2006 6:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Chen Wen Hsi in Saigon
Dear Grace,
I am not familiar with Chen Wen Hsi but you might try contacting Mr.
Han Minh. He is the leading Chinese painter in Vietnam and may know of
him. He is familiar with most Chinese painters in Vietnam and is the
President of the Chinese Painter's Association at the Fine Arts
Association of HCMC. He does not have e-mail so you can best reach him
through the HCMC Fine Arts Association. The director of the Association
is artist Dao Minh Tri and his e-mail is: hmttphcm@hcm.fpt.vn.
Best, David