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Glad Rags & Riches by Tommy Stinson photos by Zhao Dechun
Chen may well be the most financially successful Chinese artist alive. He shot to the top of the league in 1992, when Hong Kong media mogul Run Run Shaw paid a sensational US$250,000 for his "Night Banquet" painting, and hit new heights two years later when his "Mountainous Regions" fetched nearly US$350,000 at an auction in Beijing. He wears well-cut Italian suits and sports a well-nourished waistline. He also takes quite a lot of flak. Born in Shanghai in 1946, Chen graduated from the Shanghai School of Fine Arts in 1965. He became a professional oil painter and, according to an LA Times report earlier this year, quickly established his crowd-pleasing credentials to spend the Cultural Revolution as "one of the darlings of heroic realist painting." A move to New York in 1980, however, introduced him to a very different audience when he was taken under the wing of Armand Hammer's gallery. A series of successful shows at the Hammer gallery sealed his reputation abroad. The International Herald Tribune called his work "an intriguing mix of Western technique and Chinese sensibilities," and the international appeal of this blend persuaded Marlborough Fine Art of New York and London, whose roster has included Frances Bacon, Fernando Botero and Henry Moore, to sign Chen to a worldwide exclusive contract. Back home in China, this worldly success has led to carping about "selling out" and kowtowing to foreign tastes. Such criticism must seem unfair to anyone who has watched Chen's self-financed 1995 movie Evening Liaison, whose ponderous and obscure style could hardly be accused of commercialism. Chen extended his range to film making in the early 1990s and has two Shanghai-based documentaries as well as Evening Liaison to his credit. Most recently he has branched out into fashion design, and in October brought his Yifei Fashion company's autumn and winter collection to the capital for a show at the Beijing International Club. Beijing This Month took the opportunity to go in search of the sources of inspiration of this multi-talented "Norman Rockwell of China," as the Wall Street Journal dubbed him. BTM (Q): How does a famous painter come to be holding a fashion show? "I'm a painter, you know, and I also did some movies, so people say to me how did you start with the fashion. I always had a concept... I call it 'big art.' All this is in the vision area - movies are, I might say, moving pictures; and the fashion is like moving sculpture." Q: So you don't see that there's any conflict between your work as a painter, and your work as a film maker or fashion designer? "All this is about inner reality, this concept." Q: What made you get into fashion in the first place? "I like fashion... I always think maybe I can do something for the Chinese, for my people, for my friends... You look at a city, and people say maybe, 'Oh, it's New York,' because of the skyline of the buildings. But if you see the detail, you see there's so many things - so this is the artist's view. The things you have to do... it's from the artist's point - that eye. So from this point, I think I can do lots of things for this land, for my friends, and fashion is one of them." Q: Painting or fashion designing are quite solitary pursuits, but making a movie is a collaborative affair. Have you found film making a very different artistic experience? "The movie is moving pictures. So I like to do it this way - I did a lot of sketches for the cameraman, for the designer... this is maybe the artist's way, you know, as a painter. So some people in articles said this is an 'artist's movie,' maybe through the artist's eyes he just painted the film. Doing the sketches, working with the designer - this was quite easy. But you know, making a film has a lot of technique involved, but we had a very good team. Just like with the fashion, we have a very good design team." Q: Who are your influences as a film maker? "I like lots of very good directors, Western and Chinese... all this is cumulative, one by one, like layers." Q: So you couldn't pick out any particular style from either Western or Chinese cinema? "There's too much. When I was a student I saw the work of Chinese directors, then Kaige, Yimou - all these are friends of mine - and then there were a lot of Russian films. And since I' ve been in New York I've had the chance to see movies from lots of different countries. So lots of movies have influenced me, too many that I can pick out just one or two." Q: What drew you into painting when you were young? "In my family no-one was an artist. My father was an engineer. When I was 13, I heard that an art school in Shanghai was accepting students, and I wanted to apply. My parents were shocked - my father said, Artists are always poor. you should be an engineer.' But I went to the high school of art and pursued three years of training." Q: But can you remember when you first started drawing and painting. If your parents weren't artistically inclined, where did that inspiration come from? "I was very interested in still life. When my mother came home from the market, I would take some vegetables from her basket and make a nice composition for a still life. Maybe this was my starting point." Q: Can you identify any special moments over the years when you have come into contact with new ideas that have changed your approach to art? "Art life is like a series of stops, like a railway. At every stop you have to pick something for your trip. And some stops are very important for my life, for my art life. At some stops you find some new things. Life is always like that." Q: Can you think of any particular examples? "But...sometimes everything can influence, you cannot take something as more important. This is cumulative, all one by one. Like sometimes maybe I am doing a movie and I get some idea for my painting." Q: What do you think makes your art appeal so much to international collectors? What is it that gives it such high prices? "I'm lucky. You know, because I have a chance to have a show in the Armand Hammer Gallery - he also supported me a lot. But also I work very hard... Sometimes I believe in fate." Q: What kind of responses do you get from collectors? Why do they say they like your paintings? "They like my paintings. They visit my studio, and they cannot find one painting at my studio - they're all sold out, it's true, it's true, yes... In one article they called my paintings 'romantic realism.' I like this title. I think my painting has a warm feeling. Life can be very cold, so I like to give a warm feeling." Q: You've been criticized somewhat in China. What kind of negative reaction to your work have you had? "People say, 'Oh, you sell very well? maybe it's commercial.' " But from my point of view I never think about the money... From my point of view as an artist I figure I have to let the painting say something, that is very very important. If it sells, that's good; if the price is high, I'm very happy. But you have to realize you're an artist and just let the painting say something... Any artist can only say one sentence, can only have one voice. I cannot do my romantic realism one day and then be Van Gogh the next. It's like beer - this is Heineken, this is Qingdao; how can you have a beer that today you say is like Heineken and then tomorrow it is like Qingdao? That's ridiculous." Chen Yifei Fast Facts:
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When talk turns to famous artists, the first topic of discussion is usually their work and its merits. When talk turns to Chen Yifei, however, the main subject of interest is usually the size of his wallet.
Celebrated Chinese director and artist Chen Yifei died of gastric haemorrhage at 59 in Shanghai on Sunday morning of April 10 in 2005.