| H01 |
Vincent is Coming Home
Matisse: "Dessert, Harmony in Red"
(1908 - 09)
Vang Gogh: "Sunflowers" (1888), "The Painter on the Road
to Tarascon" (1888)
The sublime interior of Matisse's "Dessert,
Harmony in Red" has become Van Gogh's home, and a pattern of Van
Gogh's "Sunflowers" adorns the wallpaper and tablecloth. Van
Gogh's wife, a graceful Arlesian woman, prepares dessert for the happy
artist, returning home from a long day of painting under the sun.
Thus, in Chen's adaptation, Vincent van Gogh has finally attained the
family intimacy and artistic recognition which he so earnestly craved
throughout his lonely life. (T. F. Chen
and Julie Chen)
|
| H02 |
Early Bird
Van Gogh: "The Sower with Setting Sun"
(1888)
In a detailed description of the painting "Sower with Setting Sun"
(1888) to his brother Theo, Vincent van Gogh wrote:
I now have behind me a week of hard and busy work in the wheat fields
under the hot sun; as a result, I have studies of wheat fields, landscapes
and- a sketch of a sower. In a plowed field, a big field with violet
clods of earth ascending toward the horizon, a sower in blue and white.
At the horizon, a field with short ripe stalks of grain. Above all this,
a yellow sky with a yellow sun.
The original reference of the sower is Millet's "Sower" which
Van Gogh translated into oil. Van Gogh loved Millet's art, particularly
his artworks on peasants. Van Gogh considered the everyday life of farmers
an excellent motif and copied many of Millet's etchings into oil paintings.
In Chen's new version of the "Sower with Setting Sun," the
original sunset was transformed into a brilliant sun ascending out of
the horizon. Amid this vast color-field, the solitary figure of Van Gogh,
equipped for outdoor painting, strolls thoughtfully. Although Chen's painting
looks completely different from Van Gogh's original, the relationship
of the structure is kept unchanged: the sun rises at the middle of the
horizon beyond the artist, who walks on the right-hand side, between the
furrow of colorful tulips in blossom.
In this painting, Chen imagined that our Van Gogh had returned to his
homeland. Delighted by the splendid flowering of tulip-fields, the artist
rushed out into the early morning to greet and paint them. From such passionate
love and dedication, of course we can expect Van Gogh to bring about a
masterpiece from his palette. (As the proverb says, "The early bird
gets the best seeds.") (T. F. and Julie
Chen)
|
| H03 |
Guard Them for Harvest
In this painting, Dr. Chen transforms two of Vincent van Gogh's artworks:
"Wheat Field with a Skylark" and "Self-Portrait."
Vincent painted "Wheat Field with a Skylark" in the summer of
1887. "Self-Portrait (with Straw Hat)" was also painted in 1887,
now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY, was one of the extraordinary
series of Van Gogh's self-portraits which begun in the summer of 1887
and continued until February 1888 when he left Paris for Provence. Evidently,
during almost two years in Paris, Vincent had integrated and surpassed
Impressionism to go beyond atmospheric searching in chromatic expression
and Divisionism (Pointillism) to achieve an emotional and visionary expression
through his violent brushstrokes and blazing color contrast.
Van Gogh's "The Wheatfield with a Skylark" is a painting of
open-air subject favored at that time. Here the choice of motif is simple,
yet rooted deep in Vincent's love of nature, peasant life, and the Earth.
Here, a simple section of a golden wheat field is seen with a skylark
hovering low above the fields under a breezy serene sky. The stalks, quivering
in the wind, wait to be harvested.
In Chen's version of the wheat field, a straw man stands in the middle
of the scene to scare off crows! A portrait of Vincent with a straw hat
is taken as the model for the straw man, with arms outstretched, holding
a palette in one hand, and brushes in the other. Seen from afar, with
the golden sun rising behind him, the scarecrow takes the form of a Cross.
Ripened stalks in a field
Each grain, nourished in toil, in pain
Don't let the crows eat them out
Sacrificing himself
Standing as a Cross
Uncle Vincent
Guarding
Cultural Crops
(T. F. and Julie Chen)
|
| H04 |
Working Hard
Van Gogh: "The Siesta" (1890)
T. F. Millet: "The Gleaners" (1857)
Copying after the works of masters is considered
an effective way to learn good practice for beginning artists.
In the spring of 1881, Vincent van Gogh decided to devote his life to
art. An admirer of Jean-Francois Millet's etchings, Vincent produced his
first two studies after Millet's "Sower" (1850) and "Mower"
(1862) in pen and pencil, washed with watercolors. In Paris, Vincent studied
the Japanese Ukiyo-e of Hiroshige and Yeisen, and copied their works in
oil colors. Again, when he stayed in the asylum at St. Remy, Vincent copied
after works of other beloved artists. Based chiefly on black-and-white
reproductions, in 1890, Vincent painted after Rembrandt van Rijin's "The
Raising of Lazarus," Honore Daumier's "Man Drinking," Eugene
Delacroix's "Pieta" and "The Good Samaritan;" and
several of Millet's works, including "The Siesta," one of "The
Four Hours of the Day."
Van Gogh felt that such kind of copying after esteemed masters was not
merely copying, but rather "translation" as well as "creation."
In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent wrote that copying after Millet's
"The Siesta," was like "translating into another language,
the language of color," as he sought to express the subject in "soft
blues and lavender, color with which the complimentary yellow plays an
important part."
Translation? Or interpretation? Has a new artwork come into birth?
Using a study of Millet's as a model, Van Gogh painted in oil a pleasant
couple taking a nap under the shadow of some haystacks during the harvest
season. To this scene, Chen added the famous image of Millet's "Gleaners"
(1857) onto the left-hand side, as well as a figure of Van Gogh in the
middle of the canvas busy painting them under the serene autumn sky.
Millet lived a half-century earlier than Van Gogh, who in turn, lived
a half-century earlier than Dr. Chen. In Chen's new painting, these three
hard working artists from three different countries and three different
eras, share a mysterious connection as art allows them to intersect time
and overlap expressions.
In his "Neo-Iconography" style, Dr. Chen weaves together familiar
icons from the wide spectrum of world cultures, time and space, and art
history to create new artworks with added dimensions of meaning and beauty.
This concept of "assumptive situations" through "united
time-space relationships" is also related to Post-Modernism. (by
Julie Chen)
|
| H05 |
Watching TV
Van Gogh: "Potato Eaters" (1885)
"Peasant with Sickle, Seen from the Back" (1885)
The "Potato Eaters" by Vincent
van Gogh comes from his early years, when he trained in oil paintings
of a Dutch-style realism. The work reflects the down-to-earth, often harsh
reality of peasant life with its endless toil and suffering, painted with
a somber gravity of straightforward and often crude craftsmanship; yet
this work is no doubt a masterpiece due to its expression, compassion
and love. We see the artist's sincerity as he strives to intimately reveal,
an anguished searching of the soul, transcendence above daily burdens,
as the lamp enlightens the potato eaters fathered around the table.
In "Watching TV," Chen slightly changes their sitting position
so that all of the family members can gather round and enjoy the fruits
of their labors, relax a bit as they unwind in front of their TV, which
is now a past-time almost universal in our everyday experience in this
technology age. The TV acts as a window to the world's activities which
enter every household, rich and poor alike, to unify the world-family.
Whether you are a fisherman or diplomat, scholar or merchant, you are
a member of this global village.
In the closing ceremony of the Annual Conference of the State of the World
Forum in San Francisco, 1998, Chen remarked: "In our age of computers
and communication, not only do we need hardware and software, but also
Soulware."
High technology transcends the world, now we must ask, what shall transcend
technology? Moreover, how shall we maintain true human connection along
with these technological advances in this upcoming age? (T.
F. and Julie Chen)
|
| H06 |
Saint Vincent
Van Gogh: "Seft-Portrait" (1888), "The
Sower" (1888), "Sower with Setting Sun" (1888)
In some ways, Vincent van Gogh can be considered
a saint.
Born in an evangelical family, and once devoted to becoming a preacher,
Van Gogh, often sought his refuge in God. He knew the Bible well, and
also studied the literature of such humanistic authors as Victor Hugo,
Emile Zola, Jules Michelet, and Charles Dickens. However, because of his
unconventional method of preaching, Van Gogh had been rejected early on
from pursuing a religious vacation. Finally, when he was twenty-seven
years old, Vincent discovered his salvation through art. From that moment
on until his suicide at thirty-seven, we see one of the most astonishing
and moving struggles of an artist, as he suffered through pain, misunderstandings,
and isolation, to reach his creative climax.
Yet in just ten years of artistic activity, Van Gogh blazed through this
world like a meteor, and now emerges as a giant in art history. Once exiled
for his madness, Van Gogh is now acclaimed for his genius. The intense
passion which destroyed him, also gave the world some of the most beautiful
artwork we have ever seen. An explorer of the inner self, a seer of a
true, richer universe, Vincent van Gogh serves as an inspiration to all.
In this "Saint Vincent," Chen pays homage to one of his favorite
artists.
Inspired by Van Gogh at an early age, Chen decided to be an artist and
went to Paris to study at l'Ecole des Beaux Arts in the 1960's. He obtained
his PhD in art history from la Sorbonne and afterwards, traveled to Arles
and Auvers to visit the sites painted by Van Gogh. Chen was so deeply
influenced by Van Gogh that on the occasion of the centennial worldwide
celebration of Vincent's death in 1990, Chen painted 100 paintings dedicated
to the artists as a "Post-Van Gogh Series." "Saint Vincent"
is one of these.
In this painting, Chen brought together two of Van Gogh's works. One of
them is his self-portrait, which as he described to his sister Wil as
"look[ing] Japanese..... conceived as a bronze, a simple worshipper
of the eternal Buddha." The other one is Vincent's "Sower with
Setting Sun" (1888) which also had Japanese influence. The dark silhouette
of the tree runs diagonally across the picture, reminiscent of the Hiroshige
print with the slanting plum tree that Vincent had copied in Paris. (
by Julie Chen)
|
| H07 |
Van Gogh-Pope
Velazquez: "Pope Innocent X", 1650, Galleria
Doria-Pamphile, Rome
Van Gogh: "Self-Portrait in Front of Easel", 1888, Vincent van
Gogh National Museum, Amsterdam
Chen takes his time machine in the other direction, back in time to bring
in Diego Velasquez (1599-1660), Spain's greatest painter of all time.
Although appointed as painter to the court, Velasquez was allowed to make
voyages to Italy. On the second of them he painted Pope Innocent X, the
head of the Roman Catholic Church, in sumptuous red harmonies.
In voyaging from Warhol to Velasquez, Chen has gone from Pop art to Pope
art.
Chen's icon-switcher deposes the Pope from his religious throne and crowns
the secular Van Gogh in his stead. A few years ago Morris L. West wrote
The Shoes of the Fisherman, a novel about a modernday Cardinal who began
giving away the wealth of the Vatican when he was elevated to the Papacy.
Chen is playing a slightly different game. His Pope holds a check which
says, "Pay to the order of Vincent Van Gogh, One Billion and Six (hundred
thousand dollars)." The check is drawn on the Bank of the Whole World
and the account is held by the Whole world Company."
Chen means to laud Van Gogh and his contribution to art but an irony surfaces.
If the best Van Gogh paintings in the world's museums were put on the auction
market, $1.6 billion would not be enough to buy them. (by
Laurence Jeppson) |
| H08 |
She Loves Van
Gogh
The two icons of this painting come from Diego Velasquez' "The Toilet
of Venus" (c. 1649-50), now at the National Gallery of London, and
Vincent van Gogh's "Self-Portrait" (1888), now in John Hay Whitney's
Collection. The masterpieces were created approximately two and a half centuries
apart from each other. In the original artwork by Velasquez, Venus gazes
at herself through a mirror held by an angel. In Chen's interpretation,
Venus now looks fondly upon one of Vincent van Gogh's self-portraits.
Is the Goddess of Love selecting a painting for herself? Or is she looking
back at her old lover? Perhaps she is passing the time as she waits for
her lover to return? Does the Goddess love the artist or the artwork?
If you were Venus, what would be your answer? - An intriguing questions
for post-modern art. (T. F. and Julie Chen) |
| H09 |
Chatting About
Vincent
In Jan Vermeer's original artwork, "The Soldier and the Young Girl
Smiling," (1632-75) a sailor's map hangs upon the wall as a conventional
decoration in a Dutch household of the 17th Century. In Chen's work, the
two people remain the same, but we find Vincent Van Gogh's canvas, "Coal
Barges, (1888)" temporarily hung up upon the wall instead, waiting
to be framed.
Thus a story develops:
The brilliant sunset sky with its warm reflections upon the river cuts a
rich silhouette of the coal barges with workers and a French flag in view.
Vincent has just finished this painting and has sent it to Holland via the
Dutch soldier as a gift to the delighted young girl. After hanging up the
painting for all to admire, she joyfully chats with the gift-bearer, thanking
him for the gift's safe delivery. Perhaps the girl is Van Gogh's sister
or lover; perhaps they are chatting about Vincent in Arles and of his wonderful
artistic achievements.
Of course, such a scenario can only be possible in art, not in reality.
For example, this conversation scene took place in the 17th Century and
Van Gogh painted Coal Barges in Arles in 1888. Moreover, the lightened glass
window is a design after Mondrian, anther Dutch master, but of the 20th
Century.
Thus, Chen's brush renders three-hundred years in one stroke on one canvas;
gathering Vermeer, Van Gogh, and Mondrian together into a small corner of
a Dutch chamber, enchanted by the light pouring in through the window. (by
Julie Chen) |
| H10 |
Good-wisher
Jan van Eyck: "Giovann: Arnolfini
and His Wife" (1434)
Van Gogh: "Self-Portrait" (1886)
Chagall: "The Lights of the Wedding" (1945)
Combining images from Jan van Eyck, Vincent
van Gogh, and Marc Chagall; the artist Dr. T.F. Chen weaves together a
happy story in this painting.
The shy and happy Dutch bride is supposed to be Van Gogh's sister. In
1888, while Vincent was at the height of his painterly creation in Arles,
he received a letter announcing the news of his sister's wedding. Unable
to attend the joyous event, Vincent sent a portrait of his to his sister
as blessing and present. The bridegroom is a Jew, perhaps a well-off merchant,
and so we see Chagall's angel, musician, seven candles and wedding canopy
floating above the couple in their marital bedroom. In Van Eyck's original
painting, a mirror behind the couple reflects well-wishers bidding farewell
and leaving the chamber. In Chen's interpretation, the mirror is replaced
by Van Gogh's portrait, which carries his eternal blessing upon the newlyweds.
( by Julie Chen )
|
| H11 |
Golden Triangle of Post-Impressionism
Cezanne: "Young Mon with Red Jacket"
(1890 - 95)
Van Gogh: "Dr. Paul Gachet" (1890)
Gauguin: "O. Taiti (Nevermore)" (1897)
Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul
Gauguin are universally regarded as the three masters of Post-Impressionism,
each in his own grandiose style and expression.
Cezanne's art stands out with his geometric serenity of structure. With
firm, solid brushstrokes, he captured form and value with color, digging
out the inner order of nature in its essence. With bright, yet earth-toned
colors, Cezanne constructed space in two-dimensions. He was fond of the
intellectual analysis of forms, arranging them in an organic color harmony.
The psychology of Cezanne's figures mattered little, he was not interested
in their thoughts nor their emotions, but in their form. "I want
to astonish Paris with an apple," he stated.
Van Gogh, on the other hand, liked to express human emotions and passions:
love, hatred, despair, hope, suffering, desire, longing for eternity and
for God. He once said, "I have sought to paint with red and green
the terrible human passions." To Van Gogh, nature pulses, forms swell
and crackle, trees twist like flames, nebulae unfurl. He sought to directly
impact human emotion, sometime creating shock by his employment of intense
tones. He believed in the primary importance of color to express the state
of mind that the model represented. With color, Van Gogh tried to convey
the inner vitality of the objects, of the scenes he depicted. With particular
contorted touches and short winding lines, Van Gogh strived to express
the psychology of the figures as well as the landscapes. Physiognomy was
but a pretext, Van Gogh tried to catch the light, soul, and God-image
beyond the appearances before him.
As for Gauguin, his exotic, poetic subject matter and his nostalgic, dreamy,
symbolic themes made him a master of imagination. Gauguin was a civilized
primitive, or a wild European, longing for an escape to the garden of
Eden, "an escape to the woods of an island in the South Seas, (to)
live there in ecstasy, calm, and art." An intellectual primitive,
Gauguin painted with instinct as well as theory. He loved colors and arabesque
decorativeness; he tried to use them to construct an Eden of exotic grandeur
and mystical simplicity in a wild harmony, sometimes pushing towards abstraction.
Gauguin designed his color areas with disregard for the conventions of
realism. His values were the psychological impact of color, the orchestration
of rich tones echoing in correspondence -- which evoke with unparalleled
freshness, the feeling of Paradise.
In this three-in-one Post-Impressionist painting, Chen selected three
icons from those three grand masters and constructed them in a pyramid
shape. Cezanne's "Young Man with Red Jacket" (1890-95) on the
left-hand side, Van Gogh's "Dr. Paul Gachet" (1890) on the right-hand
side, and above them, lying on the bed, is Gauguin's "O. Taiti (Nevermore)"
(1897), immobile, naked, with open eyes, an antique beauty, an exotic
girl, an immemorial youth of nature.
These three familiar figures from European art history differ in color:
Cezanne's young man is in white and red, Van Gogh's Dr. Gachet, in ultramarine
blue, and Gauguin's lady is golden brown. They are pulled together by
the strong red color of the pyramid shape in the center of the painting,
which is originally the extension of Dr. Gachet's table on which he rests
his right elbow and left hand. This red color, while intensifying the
three figures, unifies them with its commending power of the pigment.
There is another element quite central to the whole balance and harmony
of the artwork -- the white spot upon the red table. It exists already
in Cezanne's original work, but Chen reshaped the rectangle and saturated
the white to coordinate it with the rest of the painting. It reflects
the boy's white shirt as well as Dr. Gachet's cap and collar, along with
Gauguin's white bed sheet and the silvery nackles upon the bed. This white
shape upon the red table carries the painting's center point.
Even though these three subjects were borne from different masters and
in different styles and expressions, we find a unity in them, due in part
to the similar positions of their hands. Cezanne's young man and Dr. Gachet,
both rest their heads upon their elbows (though in opposition) with another
hand on the table. As for Gauguin's declining lady, she rests her head
on her left palm while her other arm lies in a 90-degree angle.
These three grand masters naturally form a golden triangle in art history,
bearing its suggestion in the geography of the Golden Triangle in South
East Asia. In the art market recently, Van Gogh's "Dr. Paul Gachet"
(another version) broke historical records with the high price it procured
at an international auction. Imagine, one masterpiece from Van Gogh is
valued at more than $80 million, if we add a Cezanne and a Gauguin, how
much would it be then? (by T. F. and Julie
Chen )
|
| H12 |
Picasso Invading
Van Gogh's Studio
Picasso: "Self-Portrait", 1906. Philadelphia,
Museum of Art.
"Les Demoiselles D' Avignon", 1907. Museum of Modern Art, NY
"Young Faun Dancing", 1946. Antibes
"Woman with a Hat", 1945, Paris, Collection Georges Salles
"The Enamel Saucepan", 1945. National Museum of Modern Art, Paris
"Guernica", 1937. Madrid,
Van Gogh: "Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe", 1889, private
collection
"Sleeping Room of the Artist in Arles", 1888. Laren Coll. V.w.
van Gogh
Chen has played a supergame with Gogh's famous "Sleeping Room of the
Artist in Arles" by making it a rambunctious haven for Picasso icons.
As if he were decorating a Taiwanese temple, he has filled very inch of
space with symbols, even opening the bedroom windows to allow the space
of sky to be filled with intruders.
This delightful jumble needs to be taken apart like a Chinese puzzle.
It is doubtful that any painting could be more saturated with Picasso memorabilia:
they sleep in the bed, stand in the foreground, sit on the chair, repose
on the table, are traced on the floor, hang from the walls, fill the window.
This extraordinary piece will never cease to beguile, as the viewer plays
with the images. Even after every icon has been identified, the cunning
and bravado of importations, manipulations, and juxtapositions will continue
to torment. ( by Laurence Jeppson ) |
| H13 |
Cezanne
Using Van Gogh's Studio
Though already established in his art career, Paul Gezanne answered the
call to pay Vincent van Gogh a visit. It wasn't inconvenient - Arles is
pretty close to Aix-en-Provence. You just take a train, pass Lunel, Nime,
and Tarascon; then you will arrive at Arles. Once you reach the station,
just make a turn, and the Yellow House is right there on Lamartine Square.
Cezanne visited with his wife, the woman depicted in his "Wife at Coffee
Pot" (1893-94). Cezanne himself appeared as he did in his self-portrait,
"Au Chapeau Melon" (1883-87). He brought with him three canvases
which he hung upon the walls to recreate a feel of his own studio to help
inspire him to paint: "Young Man with Red Jacket" (1890-95), "Portrait
of Mme. Cezanne in Red" (c. 1890), and "Portrait of Victor Chocquet"
(1876-77). During his sojourn, Cezanne painted a vase, a jar and some apples
as a "Still Life" (c. 1877) which he placed upon a table near
the window. Looking out we see a view of the famous "Mte. Sainte-Vicotire,
Environs de Gardanne" (1885-86). Van Gogh was absent at the time, but
he left tow canvases in the room as his symbolic presence. Vincent's "Still
Life with Coffee Pot" (1888) hangs upon the wall next to the window;
and his "Still Life with Pots, Jars, and Bottles" (1884) hangs
alongside the wall among Cezanne's works.
Such a scenario is realizable only conceptually of course, and sparks the
imagination with amused delight. Van Gogh's room remains the same with his
big, brown bed, white pillows and scarlet blanket. The floor, walls window,
door table, mirror, and napkin rest there intact. Yet the bedroom has now
become Cezanne's empire, and his figures, taste, style, color and touch
dominate. Van Gogh's room has become a pretext, as Cezanne manifests his
art in this painting, or, as Chen presents Cezanne through this visit, or
rather, as Cezanne -- Van Gogh -- Chen are entangled in this presentation!
This is but one of the many amazing simulacrums of the post-modern phenomenon
that exist in Dr. Chen's "New-Iconography." (
by Julie Chen ) |
| H14 |
Matisse is
Happy Using Van Gogh's Studio
Van Gogh: "Bedroom of the Artist, in
Arles", 1888, Vincent van Gogh National Museum, Amsterdam
"The Sower", 1889, Foundation E.G. Buhrle Collection, Zurich
Matisse: "Odalisque with Tambourine", 1926, Collection Mr. and
Mrs. William S. Paley, New York City
"Nu Rose", 1935, Museum of Art, Baltimore
"Paper Cut", 1952, #197
Photo of Matisse in His Apartment in Nice, 1928
Sometimes houseguests take over. The studio bedroom is Van Gogh's all right.
That's his bed. He painted it in his own pictures, and that's a Van Gogh
work hanging by a cord on the black wall behind the bedhead.
But all the rest is Matisse, particularly the two figures. The odalisque
dominates the room - and dominates the picture and the viewer. It is only
on second glance that one notes the Matisse potted plant, the Matisse paper
cutouts, and the Matisse Rose Nude. One cannot help wondering what Van Gogh,
a onetime mission preacher, would think if he entered the room and found
her in this state of receptivity. After all, how many nudes did he paint?
( by Laurence Jeppson )
|
| H15 |
Celebrating Chagall's Birghday at Van
Gogh's Studio
Some consider the artwork of Marc Chagall "fantastical" and
"mysterious," with his swirling primary colors and endearing
images of horses eating violins and fiddlers playing on roofs. Chagall,
however, has always viewed his art as "reality." The master
once wrote:
There are no fairy tales in my paintings,
nor any fables or popular legends. I am against the terms "fantasy"
and "symbolism." Our whole inner world is reality, perhaps
more real still than the apparent world. To apply the words fantasy
or fairy tale to everything that seems illogical is to admit one doesn't
understand nature.
Marc Chagall was born on July 7th, 1887.
In 1910, feeling "as though driven by fate," he arrived in Paris.
In 1915, he returned to his hometown Vitebsk where a girl he knew since
1909, Bella Rosenfeld, visited him on his birthday. Eighteen days later
they married, and this incident gave birth to Chagall's masterpiece, "The
Birthday," which he completed in 1923. Chagall remarked.
For my birthday in 1915, Bella arrived
with a bouquet. This reality was immediately transformed in me, a chemical
process was set in motion; memory, recollection do the same. Monet was
faithful to the trees that stood before him, but those were the trees
he needs. In the same way, I start with an initial concrete and spiritual
shock, with a precise thing, and proceed towards something more abstract."
In Dr. T. F. Chen's presentation of Chagall
visiting Vincent van Gogh's studio, we see Chagall and his fiance soaring
in the air, kissing happily. On the lower left-hand side, Chagall in his
"Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers" (1911-12) appears. Some photos
of Chagall, Bella, and their daughter Ida, as well as a tapestry from
Chagall's childhood hang upon the wall. Also, Van Gogh's "Portrait
of Armond Roulin" (1888) hangs near the window as a witness to Vincent's
connection with his studio. The rest of Vincent's "Bedroom of the
Artist, in Arles" (1888) remains the same; the setting appears to
be real, while the persons, surreal.
But no! According to Chagall himself, the flying couple and the seven-fingered
painter comprise the true reality, even their visit to Van Gogh must be
real. Thus, Chen did not forge this imaginary scenario, rather, the dream
of Chen and the dream of Chagall became true in this painting!
So, T. F. Chen's "Post - Van Gogh Series" and his other "Neo-Iconography"
artworks are not merely copies nor assumptions, but artistic truth. Indeed,
art does reveal and realize our beautiful inner world, the illogical,
mysterious, fantastic, and creative universe that we all contain! (by
T. F. and Julie Chen)
|
| H16 |
Picasso
Visitng Van Gogh Again
In Dr. T.F. Chen's "Post - Van Gogh Series," Pablo Picasso visited
Vincent Van Gogh twice. In his early stages of his career, Picasso arrived,
invading Van Gogh's studio with his cubistic "Avignon" ladies.
The second time, in his relatively old age, Picasso appeared with a portrait
of Jacqueline, his second wife, and a ceramic work which he hung up upon
the wall.
It seems that Picasso is very fond of being Van Gogh's guest, and immediately
makes himself at home. This time, he's also brought a "Family of Acrobats
with an Ape" (1950) his early companions, and a lady from "The
Dream" (1932) from his synthetic cubistic period with smooth, strong
coloring. Both Picasso and Van Gogh are creative and energetic. Through
the window, we see Vincent returning home form the fields where he's been
painting all day, under a bright summer sky. Behind him are his "Gypsy
Caravans, Bohemian Camp Site"(1888) and hanging upon the wall is his
"Public Garden with Weeping Trees"(1888).
In Chen's painting, Van Gogh's bright outdoor paintings (including the depiction
of himself) contrast strongly with Picasso's indoor artistic environment,
blue and pink in tone.
On one hand, Chen uses his "Visiting Van Gogh Series," as an opportunity
to manifest the many different art styles of different masters, with Vincent's
bedroom serving as the background for the presentation. Yet Chen does so
in such an inventive, harmonious, and aesthetically pleasing way, that the
resulting new artwork abounds with added dimensions of beauty and meaning.
For example, in Chen's "Picasso Visiting Van Gogh Again," the
five distinctly different styles of Picasso co-exist organically in this
one canvas. A Japanese artist, Riichiro Kawashima, once asked Henri Matisse
what he thought of Picasso. Matisse answered, "He is capricious and
unpredictable. But he understands things." Thus, Picasso knows very
deeply how to paint, and he boldly explores his abilities and expands his
styles.
In this painting, Chen has attempted to arrange Picasso's five different
styles and Van Gogh's four paintings in a capricious, unpredictable, yet
logical and concordant composition. I wonder what Matisse would say of Chen's
endeavor? ( by Julie Chen ) |
| H17 |
Miro
Visiting Van Gogh
According to Dr. Chen, the most original, creative persons in plastic art
of the 20th Century are Picasso, Matisse, Miro, Chagall, Kandinsky, and
Dubuffet. A few of them - Picasso, Matisse, and Kandinsky - initiated their
own schools and became central figures of the movements; the others - Chagall,
Miro, and Dubuffet - though attracted to movements in some ways, distinguished
themselves rather by their personal, particular styles which stand out memorably
in art history.
Miro distinguished himself by a kind of childish, yet highly sophisticated
outpouring of primary colors and primitive forms. He created a new vocabulary
in somewhat archaic pictograms of his own, developed through years of
experimentation and discovery. Though slightly influenced by Cubism at
the beginning, and Surrealism at another time, Miro's world, things became
symbols, colors separated from objects, and objects returned to signs
and pictograms. In Miro's art, physics became metaphysics, and reality,
mythology. All of this resulted only by an act of magic in Miro's color
and line.
In this painting of "Mior Visiting Van Gogh," Miro appears
in Van Gogh's studio in his early self-portrait: "Young Man in Red
Jacket" (1919). Van Gogh stands behind him, or perhaps it is Van
Gogh's ghost who is there to greet him. Like every artist who must arrange
his environment before beginning to create, Miro has already painted the
wall with his bird pictograms in primary hues and sinuous lines. He has
painted the bed with signs as well. The chair, door, window, even the
air outside of the window, all become art and stand as sculptures of his.
The only object left untouched is a canvas by the window; Van Gogh's "Olive
Trees" painted in 1889 at St. Remy.
In fact, this artwork a la Miro is Chen's invention. Besides Miro's self-portrait
and the arabesque birds on the wall, all of this quasi-Miro decoration
is Chen's assimilation of Miro's motif and style. Van Gogh's "Self-Portrait
with Severed Ear" appears timidly behind Miro. His presence together
with Miro's majestic appearance in the room counterbalance the bird painting
upon the wall and the black designs on the bed. Around the window, the
framed squares and rectangles keep the vivid colors and sharp forms in
a stable position which integrates the rest of the painting by enriching
it. ( by T. F. and Julie Chen )
|
| H18 |
G.
Braque Using Van Gogh's Studio
Being a "Fauve" in his early years, Georges Braque is nevertheless
an initiator-promotor of Cubism paralleled to Picasso. Unlike Picasso who
reintroduced Classicism in his art, Braque remained rather faithful to Cubism.
This does not mean that he changed little, on the contrary, Braque evolved
from Analytic Cubism to a kind of Synthetic Cubism, by integrating collage,
sand, imitation wood and marble; all of these revealed tactile texture and
controlled color. He constructed with the forms of objects; he brought about
a new pictorial spatiality in an interior rhythm, with an inner light embracing
the entire painting.
Compared to Picasso who was a revolutionary in Classic and Expressionist
tendency, Braque was a researcher of new esthetic expression, a seeker
in the laboratory of forms and colors, always measured, calculated, precise
and constructive. Braque strived for an inner order and an organized harmony
where emotion could be incorporated into rationalism - resulting in an
austere yet poetic, condensed yet spiritual art.
In Chen's "Georges Braque Visiting Van Gogh," our artist at
Arles has left three paintings in his studio. Near the window, we see
a canvas of "Irises"(1890); on the wall alongside the bed, the
"Portrait of Eugene Boch" (1888); and on the floor against the
bed, a canvas of "Wheat Sheaves"(1885). These three canvases
shine brightly in the room where Georges Braque is painting a model (
"The Painter and his Model", 1939 ) in his Synthetic, Cubistic
style. Her muted colors offer a subdued harmony. Braque has repainted
Van Gogh's bed in an imitation wood texture, one of his favorite techniques
as he was an expert in using black and white. The artist has also glued
a sheet of white paper to the plank of the bed, echoing the white vase
which cuts through the black canvas on the wall and the "Black Fishes"
(1942) on a white plate under the black-white background. This strong
contrast of black and white on the right-hand side counterbalances that
of the left-hand side where a painter in black shade cuts a creamy white
canvas on the easel, spurring an orchestration of light and shadow on
the "Still Life" and the model which extend beyond the window.
Through the window, the shadowy silhouette of Van Gogh appears in his
straw hat under a pale yellow moon. A Braque bird flies overhead in a
sea of violet melancholy. ( T. F. and Julie Chen
)
|
| H19 |
Mondrian Joins
The Club
Van Gogh: "Bedroom of the Artist, in Arles",
Vincent van Gogh National Museum, Amsterdam
Mondrian: "Composition in Black and Blue", 1926, Museum of Art,
Philadelphia, Coll. A.E. Gallatin
Photo of Mondrian, 1944 (Mondrian by Hans L.S. Jaffe, Abrams)
Piet Mondrian (1872- 1944), with Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and Kasimir
Malevich (1878-1935), was one of the pioneers of abstract art and the greatest
painter of twentieth-century geometrical abstraction.
"His dedication and purity of vision have become legendary; the sequence
of his works in a mature career of some 35 years constitutes the most scrupulous
evolutionary progression, within the tightest margins of trial and error,
of probably any Western artist in the history of painting. His aims were
lofty and spiritual: he fought constantly against materialism, and he was
determined that the world would benefit from the creation of purely abstract
environments." (Waldemar Januszczak, Maray Beal, and Edwin Bowes, Techniques
of the Great Masters of Art, Chartwell Books, 1985.)
Chen has changed the Van Gogh icons that he retained in the bedroom scene
to pure colors Mondrian used so effectively, and he has added to the composition
various Mondrian icons and a photo of the artist.
Mondrian's career began in Holland and ended in America, where, because
his theories could not be restricted to easel painting, his influence on
commercial art was profound. ( by Laurence
Jeppson ) |
| H20 |
Modigliani
Visiting Van Gogh
Talented, tempestuous, and Bohemian par excellence, with an eager zeal for
self-destruction (through alcohol and hashish), dedicated and handsome,
poor yet charming; Amadeo Modigliani (1886-1920) emerged into the Parisien
art circle in Montmartre and Montparnasse like a comet. Although possessing
an innate elegance and aristocratic manner, Modigliani often found himself
penniless and would sit in a bar and sketch pencil portraits of customers
in exchange for a drink. Amid the great art movements that were developing
around him - Cubism, Abstractionism, and Surrealism - Modigliani remained
a traditionalist rather than a revolutionary. Yet his originality and individuality
evolved into an intensely personal style of his won.
Modigliani expressed an emotional quality and an idealized sensuality in
the treatment of his unique subjects: portraits and nudes. His portraits
displayed elongated necks, small heads, oval, seed-like eyes, simplified
forms and distorted features. His nudes are erotic and sensual, not like
goddesses, but like adult women, very real and very physical, "the
nudest of nudes." Their bodies are distorted and elongated in an elegance
of form, with graceful lines of such economy and virtuosity!
A kind of cursed artist, Modigliani lived one year short of Vincent Van
Gogh, dying at 36. Often looked down upon and rejected by society, the two
visionaries would no doubt have been good companions in life and in art.
In Chen's painting of "Modigliani Visiting Van Gogh," we find
in the right-hand corner, a portrait of Van Gogh done by Modigliani (or
rather a la Modigliani) in his simplified, but profound rendering. To the
left, we see Modigliani making a portrait of his lover, Jeanne Hebuterne,
who poses in the middle of the room. Van Gogh is absent, perhaps he is painting
underneath the Midi sun. Modigliani prefers to work in the studio, with
the window closed to the outside world. Inside the studio, Van Gogh has
left two canvases: "Tarascon Diligence" (1888), a Bohemian scene,
and "Daubigny's Garden" (1890), as if an invitation to come out
and work under the sun, its radiant red and brown tones reflecting into
the room where the couple are happy for the visit. (
by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H21 |
G.
Rouault Using Van Gogh's Studio
Dr. Chen finished this painting in a vehemence of quick expression under
the inspiration of the subject and the new material: the acrylic daylight
fluorescent colors.
Taking a photography of Rouault in his studio
to serve as a model, Chen arranged for him to appear in Van Gogh's studio,
together with a woman. Rouault had painted this model, a naked prostitute,
in 1906" "La Fille an Miroir," a work which announced the
artist's newfound concern for the human condition.
Born in a cave during the bombardment of Paris in the year of la Commune
in 1871, Georges-Henri Rouault was an ascetic hermit in his everyday life
and artistic creation. He studied under Gustave Moreau at l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
where he met Matisse, Marquet, Manguin, Camoin and others - the future protagonists
of Fauvism. Yet though surrounded by such inspiring artists, Rouault single-mindedly
pursued his own style, concentrating on Biblical motifs and the religious
themes of original sin and redemption. Rouault did not participate in the
ongoing artistic explorations of new plastic expression and new vocabulary
of colors and forms; he also turned away from the optimistic bourgeoisie
society of the "belle epoque." Rather, he engaged himself in attacking
the injustice and the hypocrisy of the time, through his selected themes:
clowns, pierrots, girls, judges, Christ, the abandoned, the poor, the miserable,
etc. Rouault presented his marginalized subjects as they strived towards
moral aspirations, sometimes with a satiric touch, but always with a laborious
rendering in thick colors and strong black contours to catch the very essence
of an inner light, a spiritual sublime. Even Rouault's landscapes are reduced
to their structural extreme where a few thick black outlines reveal a house,
a horse, a tree, a road, and some figures under a brilliant sun, bathed
in holy light!
In "Georges Rouault Using Van Gogh's Studio," T.F. Chen, also
an alummus of l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, poured fluorescent acrylic
colors upon the canvas, designing form s with sketchy lines, transforming
Van Gogh's room into a melodrama. The austere master is there, dressed in
white monk-like robes, turning his head away from the girl on the bed, who
can be said to represent degraded European society deep in the pursuit of
pleasure and power. The acid colors of the painting seem to fight each other,
dominated by the heavy pink whiteness of the naked body. Behind the lady
on the wall, hangs a portrait of Verlaine, a cursed mystic poet of time
, and a distorted figure in black, both from Rouault's gravure. In the wide-open
window, a landscape of Roualult's appears: "End of Autumn" (1984-52).
Beneath the window, a bouquet a la Rouault sits upon the table near a blazing
fireplace. The reddish flame from the fire-place serves as the igniting
point as well as the stabilizing color-block of the painting. Van Gogh was
absent too, leaving only a duplicate of his "Wheat Fields with Crows"(1890)
upon the wall. Being religious and ascetic of a sort himself, Vincent perhaps
preferred to take a walk outside so as to respect the privacy that Rouault
needed. ( T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H22 |
Matisse
Revisiting Van Gogh
Chen combines nine artworks in this painting, which depicts a close-up of
Matisse's visiting Van Gogh for the second time. Except for a small painting
"Character" by Miro and the famous "Bridge of Langlois"
and certainly the "Bedroom" by Van Gogh as the stage for this
scenario, Matisse has taken over Van Gogh's studio once again, contributing
"The Music," (1939) and "Self-Portrait" (1906) as the
main figures, as well as three other small artworks on the wall: a monotype,
two ink sketches.
The green leaf pattern on both sides of the window is of course that
of Matisse, who reduced Western three-dimensional art into two-dimensional
decorative expression. Matisse loved color, and using strong and often
contrasting tones, he composed boldly with his art. Van Gogh was the precursor
of Fauvism, his vehemently expressive colors inspired Matisse and his
colleagues to venture into plastical colorful experimentation which often
bordered on a kind of Orientalism. The flatness in coloration of prime
hues led to a wide variance of spectrum in rich, joyous harmony as manifested
in this painting. Indeed, Chen is happy at Matisse's scond visit, a pretext
for him to orchestrate yet another organic "appropriation" of
iconic "quotations," from some of his favorite artists - Matisse,
Van Gogh, and Miro. ( by T. F. and Julie Chen
)
|
| H23 |
Andy Just Left
Van Gogh: "Bedroom of the Artist, in Arles",
1888, Vincent van Gogh National Museum, Amsterdam
Andy Warhol's screenprints: "Marilyn", 1967; "Flower",
1964; "Campbell's Soup Can", 1965; "Cow Wallpaper",
1966; "Mao", 1973; "Dollar Signs", 1981; "Self-Portrait",
1967; "self-Portrait", 1986
Andy Warhol: "Dance Diagram", 1962, synthetic polymer paint on
canvas
Chen, playing with the intriguing possibilities of a time machine, has brought
to Van Gogh an artist who rocked the aesthetic world three quarters of a
century after Vincent's suicide: Andy Warhol, one of the inventors of Pop
Art.
In the post-industrial, high-consumption society, everything is designed,
from gas pumps to hamburger containers. Soup cans, soap boxes, movie posters,
newspaper layouts, signboards, television commercials, snack packages -
the list goes on and on of commonplace images that touch the eye so incessantly
that the mind tunes them out in selfdefense. The Pop (for popular) artists
choose these images for their art to force us to see them and acknowledge
their omnipresence. Inadvertently, they became social philosophers - whether
of high order or low order is still being debated.
"Pop echoes the homogenized character of the designed environment as
contrasted with the highly individualized, egotistic creations of contemporary
fine art." (Edmund Burke Feldman, Varieties of Visual Experience. p.
425.)
In filling Van Gogh's bedroom with a composite of Warhol's icons, Chen has
created a richer and more exciting painting than Warhol ever created himself.
( by Laurence Jeppson )
|
| H24 |
American Couple
Visiting Van Gogh
Grant Wood: "American Gothic", Chicago
Art Institute
Van Gogh: "Bedroom of the Artist, in Arles", 1888. Laren, Coll.
V.w.van Gogh
"self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe", 1889, private collection.
Similarly interesting is another bedroom piece, American Couple Visiting
Van Gogh.
Chen has taken the famous Van Gogh's Bedroom, cut off the doors on both
sides, half of the bedstead and most of the wall on the right, and the chair
on the left. He has filled the lower left of his rendering with the bandaged-ear
Van Gogh selfportrait.
The bedroom windows have been opened inward, and two unlikely tourists look
in impassively: Grant Wood's famous icon of the American Gothic farmer and
his wife!
This delightful and completely unexpected juxtaposition is characteristic
of Chen's work. ( by Laurence Jeppson ) |
| H25 |
Dreaming
Master
On October 23rd, 1886, Paul Gauguin arrived at Arles to join Vincent van
Gogh. Much has been written about the relationship between these two eccentric
painters, their passionate intense characters, their sharing of the studio
in the Yellow House, and their tragic falling out two months later.
In T.F. Chen's "Dreaming Master," Gauguin has his palette in hand,
yet his mind seems to be elsewhere. Although Vincent loved Arles with its
cultivated fields and splendid flowers under southern Sun, Gauguin dreamed
of residing in some exotic paradise, far away from "the corruption
of an entire civilization," where one can "penetrate into the
very heart of Nature, powerful and maternal." With the power of imagination,
Gauguin conjures up a pretty Oceanic Landscape with a mother and child,
appearing in the window.
Van Gogh is out, probably painting in the open-air as he loved to do. But
he has left a candle burning upon Gauguin's chair for him, as well as a
depiction of the Yellow House hanging upon the wall, silently affirming
his symbolic presence.
Every artist is a dreamer, each of us looks for our own spiritual haven,
our own splendid, glorious inner world that we create, come alive in, die,
and become reborn. ( by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H26 |
Merry
Christmas, Van Gogh
The art of Dr. T.F. Chen involves an imaginative creating out of art history
with a witty and often humorous presentation, as this happy example attests
to. Originally, Paul Gauguin's visit to Vincent van Gogh in Arles ended
in conflict and tragedy. On Christmas Eve of 1888, Vincent, out of control,
tried to attack his respected artist-friend-guest with an open razor. Unable
to do so, Vincent retreated to his room and cut his own ear. The famous
"Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe" (1888) was painted
after the incident.
In Chen's version, we see, in front of the terrace of a night cafe and under
a starry night, the bandaged Van Gogh walking side by side with Gauguin.
Van Gogh's best friend and neighbor in Arles, the postman Joseph Roulin,
follows behind them. A large decorated Christmas tree occupies the right
hand side of the painting. Beneath it, a Santa Claus rings a bell and merrily
shouts: "Merry Christmas! May Love and Reconciliation bless your heart
this night!"
The spirit of Christmas is a universal call to make peace among people.
In this "Global Village" of the 21st Century, this kind of love
consciousness is of utmost importance; all of our lives depend on it.
May Reconciliation and Harmony touch all of our hearts and bless all of
humanity! ( by T. F. and Julie Chen )
|
| H27 |
Gauguin
Invited Van Gogh to Tahiti
Van Gogh: "Self-portrait with Grey Felt Hat"
(1887)
Gauguin: "Materity" (1896), "Still Life with Apples, a Pear,
and a Ceramic" (1889)
Ambroise Vollard (1868-1936), a Parisian art dealer, owned a gallery which
became a mecca for advocates of avant-garde painting, including that of
Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin. In 1936, Vollard reminisced on Gaugin, saying:
"To see him, with his great height and arrogant bearing, a fur cap
on his head and a cloak thrown round his shoulders, followed by a little
half-breed Indian girl dressed in brightly-colore finery, one would have
taken Gauguin for some Oriental prince."
After the tragic incident in Arle between himself and Van Gogh, Gaugin nevertheless
planned to travel to Madagascar in April, 1890 with Bernard, Schuffenercker,
and Van Gogh to create a studio in the tropics. The plan failed due to lack
of support, but one year later, Gauguin departed to Tahiti alone and arrived
in Papeeti on June 9, 1891.
Gauguin had Indian (Inca) ancestors, and he often dreamed of living a
primitive life in a distant paradise. Yet paradoxically, Gauguin was an
intellectual, and instead of passionate expression in his art, he preferred
poetic symbolism created by lines and colors. Gauguin greatly admired
Cezanne's rational structure and orderly style, and commented: "
to me, the great artist is the formulator of the greatest intelligence,
to whom come the most delicate and consequently the most invisible feelings
or translations of the mind."
In his "Gauguin Has Invited Van Gogh to Tahiti," T.F. Chen
has just juxtaposed three paintings. In front of Van Gogh's "Self-Portrait
with Gray Felt Hat" (1887), we see Gauguin's Cezanne's influenced
"Still Life With Apples, a Pear, And a Ceramic" (1889).Behind
Vincent, appear two Tahitian natives from Gauguin's "Maternity"
(1896)
Van Gogh seems absorbed in thought, perhaps he is pondering the words
which Gauguin has written to him in a letter: "I found everything
poetic, and it's in the corners of my heart, which are sometimes myserious,
that I perceive poetry. Led harmoniously, forms and colors in themselves
produced poetry." With respects to his comrade, Gauguin remarked,
"Van Gogh, without losing one inch of his originality, [has] gained
a fruitful lesson from me." ( by T. F. and
Julie Chen )
|
| H28 |
January 15th,
1991
The 15th day of January in 1991 was a historic day in our time. President
George Bush of the United States sent an ultimatum to President Saddam Hussein
of Iraq, urging him to draw his troops back from neighboring Kuwait or suffer
attack from the United States. Hussein refused, and a war was triggered
in the Persian Gulf in less than three days.
At that moment, T. F. Chen was deep into the creation of his "Post
- Van Gogh Series." Moved by the tragic incident, Chen finished this
painting in 24 hours, entitled "January 15th, 1991." Referring
to the masterpiece that Vincent van Gogh had completed just weeks before
his suicide, "Wheat Fields with Crows" (1890), Chen imaginatively
depicted a combat scene in the sky. Helicopters and high-speed jet fighters
crowd the raging yellow-orange sky, as a large egg-white sun witnesses and
sets. Beneath the scene, a wheat field quivers, symbolizing the civilized
fruition of humankind. Among the furrows of wheat stalks, streams of red,
red, red blood run.
The painting bears no signature, it is not an artwork solely produced by
Chen. Rather, it can be considered a collective creation by humanity.
In our age of the Global Village, war has become our #1 Public Enemy and
the most luxurious game we can not afford. Our age deeply needs a conscious
ideology based on Love and shared by all of humanity to guide us towards
true reconciliation and an active peace and harmony among all nations. (
by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H29 |
Bombardment
The inspiration for this painting came from the Persian Gulf War in which
the Allied Forces led by the United States army bombarded Iraq.
While deeply involved in the creation of 100 paintings destined to become
the "Post - Van Gogh Series," T. F. Chen felt moved to create
this painting. As a destructive flurry of bombs explodes unceasingly outside,
a ghostly figure bends in anguish, covers his eyes with his hands, and cries.
The interior of Vincent's bedroom in Arles serves as the setting. The old
man ("On the Threshold of Eternity" painted in 1890 by Van Gogh)
sits on a chair with Georges Braque's "Vanitas" (1939) on the
table. A pair of discarded shoes, perhaps from a killed family member, perches
on an adjacent chair. On the wall near the window, a rough sketch of a mother
crying over her dead infant, a la Picasso, hangs. Outside, the bombs continue
to fall. The war rages on. A cross and a skull sitting on the table tell
their own silent story.
In our age of globalization, with our Global Village, we are all more tightly
connected to each other than ever before. With our ever-advancing technology,
it has become much too easy to kill so many so effortlessly. Thus, war and
peace are now the primary common concerns for all people. So, do not ask
for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for us all! (
by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H30 |
Beautiful
Sunrise
Sandro Botticelli's three Graces from "The Primavera" (1484) dance
about lightly in front of the dawning sun. The horizon is so near to us
that we see nothing but a golden wheatfield in the early morning light.
Yet the diligent Vincent Van Gogh is already there, in his straw hat with
canvas and paintbox in hand, ready to begin a glorious day of painting in
the open-air. Two farmers from Van Gogh's "Work in the Field"
(1885) are also present, bending their backs to dig. The clouds above gleam
red, announcing a hot day to come.
In Western mythology, the Sun is attributed to Apollo, rater than Venus.
By combining Botticelli's lovely dancing Graces with the presence of the
radiant sun, Chen has modified Greek mythology for his artistic creation-
an asserted freedom of post-modernism. Perhaps with such a celebratory spirit
for the glorious day ahead, Van Gogh has envisioned a harvest for his artistic
endeavor as well as the influence of his art on generations to come. (
by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H31 |
Tulip Fields
at St. Remy
Vincent van Gogh completed his "Enclosed Field with Young Wheat and
Rising Sun" in 1889, while he was in the asylum in St. Remy. Alone
in the beauty of Southern France and tortured by his depression, Van Gogh
must have longed with all his heart to see Holland again.
In this version, Dr. T. F. Chen has turned the young wheat into prismatic
fields of radiant tulips, with two windmills and a house framed among the
mountainous landscape. It seems that from the cell of his asylum, Van Gogh's
imagination kindles a field of nostalgia with the fragrance and memory of
tulip fields in lavish bloom. ( by T. F.
and Julie Chen ) |
| H32 |
Season of Harvest
Vermeer: "The Woman in Blue" (ca 1669)
Van Gogh: "The Reaper" (1889)
Dr. Chen integrates part of Vermeer's masterpiece "The Woman in
Blue, (ca 1669)" and a part of van Gogh's "The Reaper, (1889)"
to create a new interpretation.
The Dutch lady reads a letter. Perhaps her husband is an explorer, and
far away on the sea and letters from him were valued as more precious
than gold. Vermeer captures this precious moment under a lucid light,
with a Dutch map hanging upon the wall.
In Chen's new version, the Dutch map is replaced by a section of wall
tapestry taken after van Gogh's "The Reaper", which depicts
the harvest of wheat by a solitary laborer under the summer sun. Van Gogh
painted this masterpiece while in an asylum at St. Remy, where the artist,
like the laborer, reaped a harvest as well during this most fruitful time
in his artistic production. This theme of abundant harvest also corresponds
to the woman in blue, who cannot conceal the joyful new life that has
ripened within her won belly. ( by T. F. and
Julie Chen )
|
| H33 |
Abundance
Vermeer: "The Milkmaid" (c. 1658-1660)
Gauguin: "Maternity" (1896)
Cezanne: "Still Life with Pot"
The originally Vermeer's milkmaid working in the
kitchen is here outside "en plein air" in front of a group of
Tahitians. The dignifying Dutch lady concentrated herself in pouring milk
into an glass cup on a table full of fruits.
There is a mother sitting down on the ground nursing
her baby. Two girls standing aside seem to be her sisters, watchful and
protective, guarding the nursing. They carry fruits and flowers, abandant
in a tropical paradise where the primitive beauty attracted the European.
Colonized or not, the island welcomed outsiders who bring foreign productions
to enrich the village.
In this painting, the prople are sharing what
they have under an auspicious yellow sky with pink cloud, seen through
flowering branches. ( by T. F. Chen )
|
| H34 |
Village of
Abundance
In this painting, Jan Vermeer's "Milk Maid (1656 - 60)" pours
milk from a ceramic jar into a bowl atop a table. Freshly baked bread, some
in baskets, along with another jar and cloth crowd the small surface. Behind
the maid appears a village in Auvers painted by Van Gogh. The bold contrast
of red and blue roofs underneath the composition diverts our attention,
until it finally rests upon the sunlit maid and her steady pouring.
In Vermeer's original of the Milk Maid, the scene takes place in an ordinary
Dutch kitchen. Vermeer transforms the maid's everyday act into an aesthetic
masterpiece by his dedicacity in expression of light and shadow. Yet in
this painting, Chen moves the kitchen-scene out into the open air, under
the strong country sun, so that the bold strokes and vivid colors of Vincent,
another Dutch master, can surround the classic rendering of the figure -
to reveal a fascinating contrast of taste and style. Yet the juxtaposition
of these two differing tastes and styles in extreme co-exist harmoniously
in this work, producing philosophical amusement as well as aesthetic enjoyment.
May we regard this as an aspect of abundance in Chen's "Neo-Iconography"?
( by T. F. and Julie Chen )
|
| H35 |
Beloved Letter
( Please refer to H32 )
|
| H36 |
Singing above St. Remy
Van Gogh: "Wheat Field and Cypress,"
1889. National Gallery, London.
Chagall: "The Sources of Music," 1967. Drawings for the paintings
at the Metropolitan Opera House, NYC.
"The Triumph of the Music," 1967. Drawings for the paintings
at the Metropolitan Opera House, NYC.
"The Concert," 1957. Galerie Maeght, Paris.
Combining Vincent van Gogh's "Wheat
Field and Cypress" (1889) of his St. Remy period and musical fairies
from Marc Chagall's universe, T. F. Chen has duplicated a "Wedding
above Village" in an entirely different light.
Van Gogh's cypresses, olive trees and mountains still remain, yet bright
sunshine beams upon them instead of a crescent moon and stars. A ripe
wheat field extends on the foreground of the landscape while the original
blue-green sky with moving clouds has been replaced by an ocean of radiant
light, with Chagall's fairy angels playing instruments and dancing about.
The entire painting breathes with a mystical correspondence of color,
form, and movement.
Marc Chagall's marvelous artwork with its highly original imagery explores
a world of delightful, mystical fantasy. His works celebrate life in a
radiant spirituality. As a poet and storyteller in plastic expression,
Chagall commemorates our sense of the miraculous and mysterious in life,
while embracing the exuberance of nature in Love as this painting of Chen's,
"Singing above the Fields," may witness. (
by T. F. and Julie Chen )
|
| H37 |
Beautiful Sunset
T. F. Chen was born in a small village near Tainan, in the sunny Southern
part of Taiwan, Formosa. Fertile land for planting rice and sweet potato
surrounded the village. In the 1930's, an irrigation system was installed
which enabled three crops to be harvested yearly. On early autumn evenings,
Chen loved to take walks through the vast rice fields, to see the golden
stalks dancing in waves under a magnificent sunset, such splendid beauty.
While studying in Paris at l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Chen made the first Chinese
translation of St. Exupery's Le Petit Prince, and published it in 1968.
The Little Prince also loved to watch the sunset, which always reminded
him of love, care, and hope. In a nostalgic mood, Chen painted this work,
chiefly employing images from Vincent van Gogh.
In his "Beautiful Sunset," T. F. Chen transplanted Vincent van
Gogh's famous "Church at Auvers" (1890) and placed it in his "Wheatfield
with Crows" (1890). A large pale yellow sun lingers low above the horizon,
diffusing radiant red, orange, yellow, and white light across the sky, upon
the dark-blue church, and over the golden-brown fields of wheat. Small birds
flying overhead cast elegant silhouettes against the luminous heavens. A
man watches, is it the Little Prince? Or perhaps it is Chen, or perhaps
it is you - this solitary figure from Magritte's "The Intimate Friend"
(1958) can symbolize anyone - anyone who enjoys the glorious magic of a
sunset. ( by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H38 |
Reaching the Singing Stars
Van Gogh: "The Stary Night" (1889),
"Road with Cypress Tree" (1890)
Cypress tree, a kind of green flames toward the
heaven in van Gogh's painting may be regarded as his vehement desire toward
the climax of a creative life, the effort toward the heavenly holiness
through his painting. Been rejected to be even a lay evangelist before
he found his vocation to be an artist when he was 27, van Gogh nevertheless
looked for God through his landscape, and sometimes psychologically identifying
the radiant Sun as the Creator. In his paintings done in Arles, specially
at St. Remy, the trees, specially the Cypress were treated like arms from
the earth stretching upward to reach the heaven.
In van Gogh's "Road with Cypress Trees"
done in May 1890 we have the swirling night sky with stars and the Crescent
as in his "Starry Night" painted in June 1889. As for the treatment
of the night sky, the former is much more harmonious in rhythm and touch
while the latter is more emotional and violent in movement. Surely the
"Starry Night" is much more well-known by the public, due to
probably the painting is exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New
York City, while the "Road with Cypress Tree" is shown in Kroller-Muller
Museum, deep in the Dutch forest. In fact, both are competitive in expression
emotionally and esthetically. It seems that in these two paintings, we
"see" a kind of cosmic symphony in progress.
In this new version by T. F. Chen, the night sky
in the "Starry Night" replaced that in the "Road with Cypress
Tree". Behind the cypress tree stood the Eiffel Tower. It seems we
can see the elegant high Tower of Paris from St. Remy, a remote village
deep in the South France. The distant between them is shortened, or an
illusion of the capital city appears on the horizon of Provence, or the
desire of the earth would climb up to the singing stars through the Tower,
a vehicle for spiritual Transcendance? The choice is yours, and you may
interpretate in your own.
Indeed, the artworks in "Neo-Iconography"
open to viewers' interpretations for the completion. Therefore every spectator
is a co-creator. ( by T. F. Chen )
|
| H39 |
Celebration at Night
Van Gogh: "The Starry Night" (1889)
Can you present a rural festival which comes once
in a year and transforms suddenly the banal everyday life of the peasants?
Chen asked himself, since he had such an experience in his youth. The
folkloric theatrical performances and the religious rituals with flamboyant
colors, forms, fire crackers and noisy sounds remind in his memory, particulary
when he was homesick in Paris.
Miro's extravaganza in his paintings and prints
attracted Chen with such a vivacity and joy parallel to a rural festival
of yore. Primitive figures, monsters, beings in strong colors and lives,
semi-bio-semi-geometic forms, stars, reveries, etc. unveil a landscape
of the unkown, of infants, of angels, in its poetic, metamorphic expression;
a virgin land of the dream and the unconsciousness in esthetic manifestation.
Chen took the dark village in van Gogh's "The
Starry Night" to represent any village, and replaced the starry sky
with his invention a la Miro's universe of a celebration-festival of a
countryside village when time came to transcend the rural life into a
cosmic experience of light and love, birth and death, color and music,
dream and illusion, heaven and earth -- the memory of years gone by with
its dazzling explosion of fireworks! ( T. F.
Chen )
|
H40
H41
H42 |
Homage to
Van Gogh 1
This triptych of T. F. Chen's "Homage to Vincent van Gogh" is
composed of two of Van Gogh's self-portraits and one of his sunflower images,
all of which Chen has aggrandized and modified. The enlarged portraits with
multi-colored panel backgrounds stand at the left and right, while the large
sunflower painting appears in the middle.
Among the more than 2,000 artworks that Van Gogh produced in his lifetime,
perhaps his most remarkable and memorable images are his self-portraits
and his depictions of sunflowers. Thus, in homage to the great master that
inspired Chen to be an artist, Chen has selected these subjects as the basis
for his triptych.
Among the 42 self-portraits that Vincent had painted, Chen selected the
"Self-Portrait" (1888) dedicated to Paul Gauguin and the "Self-Portrait
with Gray Felt Hat" (1887). The first looks like an Oriental face,
the second is constructed of short, energetic, expressive color strokes.
Chen deliberately repeated the image of the portrait onto the background
as decor. He accomplished this through a multiple block-printing process
similar to silk-screen painting, with the help of hand-cut stencils and
the direct application of acrylic colors. Thus, Van Gogh's portraits are
not only enlarged to a monumental presentation, but also echoed in the background
by multiple variants of the same image divided into small panels extending
out of the canvas.
Replicating an image through hand-cut screens or photo-screens is a favorite
process used by many pop artists, such as Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg.
Warhol's most known repetition series are those of Marilyn Monroe, Mona
Lisa, Coca- Cola bottles, and Campbell soup cans. His style of art reveals
a characteristic of the assembly line, mass productive society of our consumer
age, which engraves these popular images into our memory through the force
of repetition.
This approach was not invented by Pop artists, however, but dates back to
an ancient technique of 9th Century China, where we can find repetitious
images of the Buddha in quite a few block-painting illustrations of religious
sutras. These omni-present images of the saints, like the mantras chanted
unceasingly throughout the temple, were intended to keep the worshipper
in the holy mind of the Buddha.
Vincent's magnificent "Sunflower Series" which he accomplished
in Arles is a beautiful, glorious contribution to art history. In Chen's
version of "Sunflowers," the structure of the bouquet remains
the same, but the inside rings of each flower are treated in strong complementary
colors of red-green, yellow-violet, and blue-orange. Chen used bands of
black and white to accentuate the picture and a background of brilliant
orange. This presentation resonates with the style of Chinese folk art,
in which prime colors dominate.
Thus, with "Sunflowers" at the center and two of Van Gogh's "Self-Portraits"
facing each other on the sides, Chen offers his triptych in homage to Vincent
van Gogh, a humble salute to his hero! (
by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
H43
H44
H45 |
Homage
to Sunflower
At the age of fourteen, while growing up in rural Taiwan, Chen came across
a small library of about 50 books on western art. Upon seeing the work of
Vincent van Gogh for the first time, Chen wept and knew then that he was
destined to be an artist. In homage to his favorite artist, Chen painted
100 paintings for Vincent van Gogh to celebrate the 100 year anniversary
of his death (1990).
"Homage to Sunflowers II" is a beautiful example of Chen's love
of color and playful adaptation to his favorite artist. (
by Julie Chen ) |
H46
H47 |
No
Smoking
T. F. Chen was commissioned in the early 90's to create an artwork raising
awareness of cancer prevention. One of the designs that Chen came up with
is this "No Smoking" silkscreen in Vincent van Gogh's trademark.
Chen newly interpreted the image to fit the screenprinting process and made
some modifications to communicate his message.
The originality and charm of this advertisement arises in the usage of a
pictorial "icon" familiar to society. Van Gogh's "Self-Portrait
with Bandaged Ear and Pipe" has been etched into the public consciousness.
In combining the well-known image with the positive message of "No
Smoking," the painting wittily and effectively catches the spectator's
eye. It is always a delight to perceive a message conveyed through art.
The first number of this "No Smoking" serigraph edition was welcomed
by the White House during President Ronald Reagan's administration. (
by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H48 |
Phone Call on Vincent
Van Gogh: "Portrait of Dr. Gachet,"
1890. The Louvre, Paris.
"L'Arlesienne, Mme. Ginoux with Books," 1888. Metropolitan Museum
of Art.
"Vincent's Chair with His Pipe," 1888-89. The Tate Gallery,
London.
"Gauguin's Armchair, Candle, and Books," 1888. Vincent van Gogh
National Museum, Amsterdam.
"Still Life with Coffee Pot," 1888. Private Collection, Lausanne.
The assumptive scenario in this work is:
Vincent van Gogh has just committed suicide, and two of his closest friends,
Dr. Gachet of Auvers and Mme. Ginoux of Arles are busy sharing the news
and lamenting over the tragedy on the telephone.
Dr. Gachet was a fatherly friend and medical advisor to Van Gogh, as well
as an art lover and collector in his circle. After calling Theo in Paris
and relating the distressing news, Dr. Gachet calls Mme. Ginoux, the proprietress
of a coffee shop in Arles where Vincent used to spend hours painting and
writing letters. Kind to Van Gogh, Mme. Ginoux had posed for him as he
portrayed her thoughtful face and bluish-black dress against a yellow
wall. She is so shocked and upset at the calamity that her telephone has
turned a bright scarlet color.
Upon Dr. Gachet's table, an orange, a cup, and a glazed pitcher rest;
while of Mme. Ginoux' table, we see an orange, a lemon, a brown cup, and
a pitcher with checkered pattern. All of these items are actually derived
from one painting of Van Gogh's - "Still Life with Coffeepot"
(1888), now in a private collection in Lausanne. These shared items from
Vincent's painting attest to the personal connection that his two friends
had with him. They affirm the sympathetic friendship and sincere concern
that Dr. Gachet and Mme. Ginoux felt for Vincent.
The close relationship in strong contrast is paradoxically intense in
this painting. The sharp contrast of Dr. Gachet's cornflower-blue background
against Mme. Ginoux' saturated yellow wall is the most evident, while
the diagonal red table on the left and the round table in deep green on
the right contrast each other harmoniously. The two chairs facing each
other in their differences echo the meeting of Dr. Gachet and Mme. Ginoux,
who are distant yet instantly connected to each other by the phone call.
"Hello! Hello! Is he alright?!" (
by T. F. and Julie Chen )
|
| H49 |
Van Gogh's
Farewell to Eiffel Tower
Van Gogh: "Wheat Fields with Crows",
1890. Vincent van Gogh National Museum, Amsterdam
"The Church at Auvers", 1890. Museum d'Orsay, Paris
Except for the Eiffel Tower only Van Gogh images comprise this stunning
painting, one of a series commemorating the centennial of the Paris landmark.
The painting combines three icons: The Church at Auvers; Wheat Fields with
Crows; and the Eiffel Tower.
The original wheatfield takes up two-thirds of Van Gogh's canvas, and there
are lots of crows. The deep blue sky is turbulent and threatening, despite
the bright light of the wheat. Chen's wheat, on the other hand, occupies
less than half the picture, which gives his view much more sky. His sky
still has its cloud swirls, which seem rolled like harvested hay. The larger
sky gives room to dramatize two notable French symbols: the countryside
church on the right, and the civil engineer's marvel on the left.
These two symbols are epigrammatic of Chen's philosophical integration.
The church plays the role that Buddhas, poets of the moon, and other Oriental
objects filled in earlier works: symbol of the spiritual and intuitive (Eastern)
side of man. The tower, in contrast, is a manifestation of the scientific,
the pragmatic, the material: the epitome of Western culture. Here: the blending
of East and West. ( by Laurence Jeppson
) |
| H50 |
Van Gogh as
the Statue of Liberty
In this artwork, Van Gogh IS the Statue of Liberty! In his left hand, the
artist holds his palette. In his right hand, he upholds a bright bunch of
flowers, too active to be called a bouquet.
This is the lady's birthday! Chen turns Liberty's tiara into Van Gogh's
hat, blazing with a birthday extravaganza of seven torch-light candles.
This dynamic painting is a perfect tribute to these three icons: to Liberty,
to Van Gogh, and to Chen. ( by Laurence
Jeppson ) |
| H51 |
Street Musician
Deep in the South of France, on the street of Vincent van Gogh's "The
Cafe in the Evening" (1888) in Arles, "Three Musicians" (1921)
with Fontainebleau masks from Pablo Picasso's Synthetic Cubism appear, playing
instruments. To the right, a familiar face from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's
"Le Moulin Rouge" (1892) pokes out, surprising us by its dislocation.
In September 1888, the pleasure of settling into a new home in the Yellow
House, the splendor of autumn, and the anticipated visit of Paul Gauguin
all set Van Gogh to work with an ecstatic ardor of creation. "I have
a terrible lucidity at times," Vincent wrote to Theo,"when nature
is so beautiful as it is these days and then I lose all thought and the
picture comes to me as in a dream." Vincent's "The Cafe in the
Evening" was born at this time.
Illuminated by a large streetlamp, the cafe terrace may have been the brightest
corner in Arles. A boy busily waits upon customers. Some young couples stroll
about on the street. The dark houses on the opposite side cut a strong silhouette
out of the autumn night, rising up into stars and illuminated windows.
With this background of thick strokes of color and sharp perspective, Chen
adds a flat plane of Picasso's three musicians into the foreground. They
perform in harmonious virtuosity, as suggested by their organic mingling
into a synthetic orchestration of colors and forms. Obviously, Chen has
modified their original coloration to match the night lighting. Finally,
Toulouse-Lautrec's dramatic face of a night club "vedette" adds
an abrupt charm to the composition.
Indeed, such an integration of these three images from three art masters
in their different styles to compose a completely new artwork with new meaning
is the basis for Dr. T. F. Chen's signature style: "Neo-Iconography."
Although it is now possible to formulate such kind of art by computer, Chen
initiated his style in 1969, before nowadays computers were invented.
On one hand, we can say that with the proliferation of computer technology,
humanity has entered into a post-modern culture. T. F. Chen who initiated
his style of pictorial presentation as well as his "Fifth-Dimensional
Universal Culture" in 1969 is regarded as an avant-garde of post-modernism.
( by Julie Chen ) |
| H52 |
Light
from Arles
As a Nordic, Vincent van Gogh was like a sunflower chasing the sun. He finally
settled down in Arles, a small town in the south of France, where the lights
is so translucent and bright., and the landscape so exotic and beautiful
that he planned to form a "Studio of the Midi" there, a community
for avant-garde artists.
In this painting , the delicate light from Arles shines gently through
a window and warms up the corner of a lady's chamber. The enchanting chromatic
light touches Jan Vermeers's lady (Young Woman with a Water Jug"
c. 1665), who opens her window to welcome it in. Upon the wall, instead
of the original Dutch geographical map, we see a part of Van Gogh's "Mme.
Ginoux," (1888) a painting of an Arlesienne. it seems that Vermeer's
lady is transferred through time to be presented in the age of Post-Impressionism,
Van Gogh's time.
Though both from Holland, Vemeer was a contemporary of Rembrandt, and
he produced masterpieces in the middle of the 17th Century, while Van
Gogh lived in the second half of the 19th century and released a series
of artworks in the 1880's. The separation of more than 250 years seem
to have disappeared in this painting. In Chen's "Neo-Iconography,"
the time barrier dissolves. ( by T. F. and Julie
Chen )
|
| H53 |
Children
Coming
The curiosity of children is both a blessing and a danger. Obviously, without
it, we as humankind could not have progressed, but yet sometimes curiosity
can result in catastrophes.
In this painting, some apples, a bottle, a glass and a jar sit high atop
a table. Cezanne transforms them into a aesthetic masterpiece entitled:
"Still Life with A Peppermint Bottle," (1894) now at the National
Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. On the wall, we see two portraits by Van
Gogh of the postman family in Arles- the baby Marcelle Roulin and the
older child Camille Roulin, with their curious eyes peeping out onto the
table. The scene appears intense: at any time, the children might climb
up on the table, pull the blue cloth, shatter the glasses- and endanger
Cezanne's artwork!
Are you going to stop them? No! They are just juxtapositions of three
paintings!
While Vincent was in Arles, no matter how friendly and sincere he tried
to be, he encountered great difficulty in making friends. The inhabitants
seemed ignorant of art and wary of the artist; they even came to regard
Van Gogh as dangerous and signed a petition to intern him by force. Only
the Roulins, the postman family, treated Vincent well. Consequently, Van
Gogh painted portraits for every member of the family, including the baby
and the young boy. Thus, this is how such a humble family received the
honor of having their portraits in a museum, and this is why Chen can
now compose this new painting out of the Roulins and of Cezanne. (
by T. F. and Julie Chen )
|
| H54 |
The
Railroad Bridge
The Yellow House where Vincent van Gogh settled down to create is quite
near the train station. As a traffic necessity, viaducts were constructed
at the street intersections.
An aspect of Van Gogh's genius can be found in his choice of a banal motif
and then, by his master hand and poetic eye, its consequent transformation
into an esthetic revelation. Such is Van Gogh's railroad bridge in Arles,
"The Viaduct" (1888). In a letter to Theo, Vincent wrote that
he had finished this painting hastily; later on, he added a red spot as
the sun above the bridge in diagonal perspective.
In Chen's version of "The Viaduct," the structure and color
remain intact. But on the foreground, Cezanne's "Portrait of Victor
Chocquet" (1876-1877), his "Old Woman in Coif" (1895-96),
his "Harlequin" (1888), and three persons from Aix-en Provence
appear. In addition, the walls underneath the bridge are decorated with
many eye-catching designs from: "Red, Yellow, Blue" (1962) by
Ellsworth, an American artist: "Disc" (1912) by Robert Delaunay;
and "Spray" (1962) by Roy Lichtenstein, another American painter.
Chen has decorated the other two walls with geometric color fields. Thus,
the original sturdy, dark walls have been recreated into brilliant, delightful
surfaces.
Pioneering new art movements and welcoming foreign artists to participate
and enrich artistic creation, France has always been conscious in decorating
the beautiful environment with esthetic inspiration, even in the South
and in Cezanne's time, as this painting witnesses.
Vive la France! ( by T. F. and Julie Chen )
|
| H55 |
Under
the Railroad Bridge in Arles
According to Dr. Jan Hulsker, Van Gogh's "Under the Trinquetaille Bridge"
(1888) represents a high point in Vincent's oeuvre because of its controlled
color and daring, yet balanced composition.
In Chen's version, a comic spectacle takes over the painting. The scene
from Toulouse-Lautrec's "Enraged Cow" (1896), in which a mad,
provoked bull dashes after a terrified Parisian gentleman attracts the excitement
of the passerbys on the bridge. A curious dog trots alongside the well-dressed
fleeing man, and the owner of the bull frantically chases the trio. Walking
down the steps, a woman with parasol, accompanied by a child (a la Monet)
witness the scene. ( by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H56 |
When Baby is Sleeping
Van Gogh: "La Berceuse," (1888), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
"Wheat field," (1890), Osterreichiche Galerie, Vienne
Morisot: "The Mother and sister of the Artist," (1863)
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
This painting integrates three artworks: Vinvent van Gogh's "La
berceuse (Mme. Roulin)" (1888), "Wheat Field at Auvers"(1890),
and Berthe Morisot's "The Mother and Sister of the Artist" (1873).
At first glance, the painting appears to be a genuine artwork, however,
we then realize that there are two very different styles and technique
coexisting upon the canvas.
The structure of this painting originates from Morisot's artwork, with
the artist's mother reading a book and her sister reclining on the sofa.
Here, the mother is replaced by Van Gogh's "berceuse" from Southern
France. The obscure wall behind the sister is also replaced by a bright
painting of Vincent's, a view of wheat fields extending towards the horizon.
The two women keep silent, both deeply emerged in their own thoughts.
This new painting can be interpreted as the following story: A peasant
from the Midi came to Paris and successfully married a Parisienne. A baby
was born to them. One day, the peasant's mother came up from Arles to
visit the new family. She brought with her a precious gift - a painting
from Vincent van Gogh. Her daughter-in-law welcomed the artwork, framed
it and hung it upon the wall for decoration. Nevertheless, the two women
found little to talk about. After the newborn baby fell asleep in the
berseau, a deep silence fell between the two women - a generation gap
as well as a cultural gap - till the cry of the baby pierced the heavy
air!
This is Chen's version of the story, what is yours?
|
| H57 |
Art Watch
Rembrandt van Rijn's "Night Watch" (1642) remains one of the most
accomplished art works of Holland in the 17th Century. This work bears witness
to the Republican spirit of the citizen which became the foundation of a
liberal and democratic government in the age of Monarchs. The same spirit
might have developed into a heritage in art, since the small country of
Holland has produced so many astounding artists. This can be seen as one
of the true prides of the Dutch people.
In this "Art Watch," Chen pays homage to three European masters:
Sergeant Van Gogh, who accompanies Captain Rembrandt, who looks like Picasso,
for a night watch parade. Together, the three geniuses march deep into art
history, spurring worldwide influence, one generation after the other. (
by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H58 |
Van
Gogh Painting Keukenhof Garden
Holland, the motherland of Vincent Van Gogh is famous for her dazzling flowerfields
of tulips, hyacinths, and narcissus. Each spring, the flat plains beyond
the Dutch dunes witness anew the magic fairytale effect of thousands upon
thousands of beautiful flowers blossoming across the land. The Keukenhof
Garden in Lisse is perhaps the most famous in Holland for its myriad variations
of Bulb-flowers amid enchanting lakes, fountains, trees, and sculptures.
It is little wonder that during this season, more than a million tourists
and visitors crowd the garden every year to admire the lavish natural beauty
there.
Tired of Parisian life and nostalgic for home, Van Gogh is delighted to
return to Holland. The beauty of the Keukenhof Garden in the springtime
is one of Holland's loveliest and most popular attractions. Here Vincent
appears, with his easel and canvas, inspired and happy. He sets up quickly,
and then proceeds to saturate his canvas with robust clusters of reds, pinks,
yellows, lilacs, blues, and purples, while inhaling the perfumed air. (
by T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H59 |
Van Gogh in Tulip Garden
The tulip garden here is doubtless the famous Keukenhof Garden on Lisse
where the most wonderful variations of bulb flowers--tulips, hyacinths,
and narcissus--can be found. The bulb industry in Holland possesses a
four hundred-year-old history. It started with Carolus Clusius, a horticultralist
who came to Leiden from Vienna, Austria in the 16th century, with tulip
bulbs in his suitcase. At that time, the tulip was a very luxurious flower
that only rich people could afford. Though now popular worldwide, the
tulip is considered a trademark of Dutch heritage.
In this painting, Chen installs two images of Van Gogh in the garden:
a self-portrait he made in Paris (1886) and his famous figure of "The
Painter on the Road to Tarascon" (1888). Perhaps as Van Gogh searches
for a view to paint, he also seeks a part of himself, his soul in heritage
as well as in artistic creation. ( by
T. F. and Julie Chen )
|
| H60 |
Van
Gogh Invited Gauguin to Halland
Vincent Van Gogh and a group of artists from Port Aven reverded Paul Gauguin,
and regarded him as a kind of leader of an emerging art movement. Vincent
longed to meet the other artists in Britagn who socialized with Gauguin
and painted them in an atmosphere of artistic community which he dreamed
of so much. Taking a chance, Van Gogh dared to invite Gauguin to Holland,
to see at least the blooming extravaganza of tulip fields.
This painting depicts Van Gogh accompanying Gauguin in a stroll to the bulb-growing
area. The windmill on the horizon attests to the still, windless day. The
blossoming fields stretch widely into a abstract color-field, bound to inspire
the two geniuses. Are they ready to paint? ( by
T. F. and Julie Chen ) |
| H61 |
Tulip Field at La Crau
Van Gogh: "La Plaine de la Crau," (1888), "The Painter
on the Road to Tarascon," (1888), "Flowerbeds in Holland,"
(1883)
In Arles, Vincent van Gogh produced many marvelous
art works, among them the "Harvest Landscape" (June 1888). This
exquisite painting has become one of the most successful and most popular
images of Van Gogh, and appears in countless postcards and other reproductions.
Van Gogh composed two pen-and-watercolor drawings
of the scene, before painting it in oil. On June 12, 1888, he wrote to
Theo: "I have embarked on a new motif, endless green and yellow fields
which I have already drawn twice and am not starting on again as painting"
(Letter 496). Completed in the region of the Crau in the vicinity of Arles,
Van Gogh's "Harvest Landscape" is a panoramic view of pasture
with gardens, haystack, houses, carts, farmers, and vast wheat fields
extending to the chain of the Alpine Mountains on the horizon. It is warm
in color and forceful in perspective. Because of the dry heat of June,
the greenery was beginning to look parched. Vincent wrote, "In everything
you would say, there is now old gold, bronze, copper, and that, with the
greenish azure of a white-hot sky, gives a marvelous color, extraordinary
harmony, with broken tints just like in Delacroix."
In Chen's version of the "Harvest Landscape"
in la Crau, the golden fields of dry wheat and green brushes have changed
suddenly into gorgeous tulip fields exploding in full bloom. Nostalgic,
Vincent sees that the landscape in front of him has altered into a panoramic
manifestation of color fields as familiar to him as home. The resplendent
Dutch bulb-fields in full flowering appear as an ocean of abstracted coloring.
Moreover, the enclosed garden at the forepart has changed into part of
his "Flowerbeds in Holland" painted 1883 at The Hague, now at
the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (Collection of Mr. &
Mrs. Paul Mellon). Still more astounding are the three windmills in view.
The rest of the setting remains the same; however, deep in the tulip fields,
we see a ghostly silhouette of Vincent in straw hat, roaming with his
canvas.
The Buddhists believe that the universe can change
according to one's mental vision. Van Gogh had always been fascinated
by the exotic Far East (such as Japan); perhaps like the Guddhists, our
nostalgic Van Gogh has focused his mind of transform the Arlesian wheat
fields into an ocean of tulips. ( by T. F. and
Julie Chen )
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| H62 |
Rothko
Using Van Gogh's Studio
Mark Rothko's painting style after 1947 which continued till his death in
1970 distinguished himself from his contemporaries, even from color-field
painters and minimalists of the 60's. "I became a painter because I
wanted to raise painting to the level of poignancy of music and poetry,"
Rothko said. He was an immigrant form Russia, once a student at the Art
Students League, and a surrealist later as a member of the New York School
(which included the likes of de Kooning, Pollock, and Gottlieb).
Rothko's art came out of Modernism with a touch of the Romantic spirit's
search for the absolute. His painting style developed form Realism to
Surrealism, then into an abstraction all his own. His composition consisted
of simplified yet delicately sensual rectangles of color with overlapping
or separating margins, producing a sense of light and atmosphere. A space
for contemplation, a void to be sensed, an elusive, sublime spirituality
- Rotho's art glowed with a mystic radiance!
In his "Rothko Visiting Van Gogh," Chen dramatized the scenario
in a close-up setting. The window is closed and the wall is all black,
like Rothko's dark panels for contemplation in Houston Chapel, Texas,
colored rectangular motifs a la Rothko pulsate on the window, in subtle
harmony and contrast, bathed with light. To the right of the window, we
see Van Gogh's "Boats on the Shore near Sainte-Marie-de-la-Mer"(1888),
extending beyond the canvas. Beneath it, three garments hang on hooks.
To the left of the window and reflected in the mirror, we find Rothko
in a surreal red tone lighting his cigarette, an image that reveals the
artist's presence in the room. Beneath the mirror, a vase and a jar sit
atop a table, maintaining the balance of the painting. All of these objects
seem to emerge vividly from the deep darkness of the wall, the void, the
emptiness that sustains what exists. ( by T.
F. and Julie Chen )
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| H63 |
Vincent
at Hospital in Arles
During his stay in Arles, Vincent van Gogh's health began to fail, especially
after his conflict with Paul Gauguin. The stroke Vincent had suffered forced
him to stay at a hospital in Arles. As soon as he was able to work again,
Vincent painted the hospital with its garden, in oil as well as in ink.
In this painting, "Vincent at Hospital in Arles," Chen has combined
a self-portrait that Van Gogh has painted in Paris (summer 1887) with "The
Courtyard of the Hospital" (May 1889), which was originally drawn in
pencil, reed, pen, and brown ink. Chen has transformed the drawing into
oil with reference to the same courtyard painted in oil by Van Gogh. Evidently,
the two hospital gardens have been depicted from opposite sides, so that
the scene look similar, but reversed in composition. In fact, by studying
and utilizing Van Gogh's rough-draft sketches, we can reproduce paintings
a la Van Gogh.
In this version of the hospital scene, we see that the different flowers
in the garden have been exchanged for tulips- a Dutch national symbol.Whether
through Van Gogh's nostalgic eyes or through mysterious magic, the appearance
of the familiar blossoms serve to comfort and encourage the artist during
his illness. ( by T. F. and Julie Chen )
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