Happy Collectors Series
Introduction

T. F. Chen's inspiration of this "Happy Collectors Series" came from Pere Tauguy's Portrait by Van Gogh of his sitting in front of many Japanese prints. We must be grateful to art collectors because they are preservers of art treasure, for their collections would usually become public wealth some day in the future, therefore enrich the society.

In this Series, Chen used to combine different portraits with different "still life" paintings in the foreground and in the background, some differing paintings of some masters. This makes the new paintings look like a collector being sandwiched by masterpieces hung on the wall behind him/her and a table of food in front of him/her.

As the collectors are portraits derived from masterpieces, such trinity of front - middle - back images integrates into a new artwork in post-modern scene. As owning artwork is a happy experience, it's encouraging to term this series as "Happy Collectors Series". ( by T. F. Chen )
L01
L02		 Chen and Rembrandt
Rembrandt: "Self-Portrait", National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Color on a surface creates images, one way or another. Until Rembrandt the surfaces of Dutch paintings were smooth, as painters made their brushstrokes disappear. In so doing artists made it seem as if no painter had participated in the creation of the work of art. They obeyed an intellectual adherence to rules and concealed their own emotions.

By the time the Baroque master was in his twenties he had abandoned the Dutch norm and was caking his surfaces with far more paint than needed to create an image. Rembrandt put down as much material with one stroke as conventional painters did with five. His personality was in the picture. Some of his contemporaries decried his paintings because they lacked clear, unambiguous delineation of image. Rembrandt's paintings were, they said, unfinished.

What had happened? Rembrandt had given art a new norm. The images were there, a precarious balance between painting tonality and with light and shade and painting with color. And the artist's hand was visible and dramatic.

This was the kind of strength that Chen could readily admire three and a half centuries later.

In this picture Chen has selected a later Rembrandt self-portrait for his icon, and he has put himself shoulder to shoulder with his hero. They look like brothers. The golden brown icon links to Rembrandt; Chen's blue coat to our time. ( by Lawrence Jeppson )
L03 Double Portrait of Chen

Almost every artist paints his own portrait. This starts as an art school exercise. Artists continue to paint auto-portraits for a number of reasons: thrift (they don't have to pay themselves as models), experimentation, self-adulation, introspection.

Once I quoted Chen as telling me he had painted himself a thousand times. He scolded me, saying that it was a figure of speech. I am not convinced. I believe there are two reasons why Chen has painted himself so often. The first is a matter of discipline and excitement: it is a matter of training his eye and his hand to master many techniques and take his soul to new frontiers. The other is a matter of identity. Thrown into the vortex of swirling tensions of East and West-the very tensions that led him to the creation of Neo-Iconography-he has had perilous moments of self-identification. Who am I? I will define myself by painting myself.

In Chen's hands this personal quest has created a marvelous body of art. In so doing, he establishes himself as an icon, a varied, never-the-same, marvelous icon.

The story behind this particular work of art is interesting. "One day I picked up a blank canvas and a canvas with a Mondrian pattern on it at a street corner in SoHo. I used them to paint my portraits and then put them together."

It's a strong combination, the one on the left being as vigorous a self-portrait as Chen has ever done, and the one on the right showing a cunning echo to Mondrian's primary colors, given by the red and blue eyeglass lenses. ( By Lawrence Jeppson )
L04 Self-portrait, Six in One

The self-portrait has been Chen's most prolific tool for artistic analysis. Although he can be excruciatingly whimsical, he does not seem to paint from whim. He doesn't seem to pick up an image because it happens to be handy. He is more likely to use an image after he understands it.

Most of Chen's images come from art. Although some commentators will maintain that a work of art stand on its own feet, as an isolated entity not associated with its context or its authorship, it is difficult to understand-really understand-some art without understanding the artist.

So what does Chen do when he finally wants to understand an artist and the artist's icons? One of his favorite tricks is to make himself that artist, by painting in the style of that artist or painting himself as that artist. There are, for example, Chen as Van Gogh, Chen as Rembrandt, and others.

The Chen as Van Gogh segment here is a free adaptation of Van Gogh's "Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe". It is a tribute to another Dutch painter who influenced Chen very deeply.

In the other five segments Chen has experimented, treating such piece differently. He changes structural dynamics, employs different colors, alters backgrounds. In the upper right segment he disappears into the background; in the lower right he emerges, strong and assertive. We are drawn to the lower middle piece. The hand holding the brush is an interesting transparent outline. It is also his left hand. Ask him when you see him, "do you paint left-handed?" ( by Lawrence Jeppson )
L05

Happy Mousume
Van Gogh: "La Mousume" (1888), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Cezanne: "Still Life with Green Jug and Tin Kettle," (1867-69), Orsay Museum, Paris
Matisse: "Woman with Madras," (1929-30), Coll. Claude Duthuit
Bonnard: "Vase of Flowers," (1945), Private Collection, France

In. T. F. Chen's "Happy Mousume," we see Vincent van Gogh's innocent model in formal dress seated in an art chair. Objects from Paul Cezanne's "Still Life with Green Jug and Tim Kettle" (1867-69) sit upon a table in front of her, while Pierre Bonnard's "Vase of Flowers" (1945) and Henri Matisse's "Woman wit Madras" (1929-30) hang behind her against a flat green wall.

This depiction of a lady at home with pictures hanging upon a wall seems so natural, but in actual reality, this scenario could never have existed. For the thirteen-year old Mousume from 1886 could not possibly have possessed two paintings from the 20th century. Yet Chen's art of "Neo-Iconography" dismisses the time-space barrier, creating a new painting with a new meaning that allows the four masterpieces to coexist harmoniously upon one canvas. How delighted the young lady would be to own such treasures and how happy to be a young art collector!
L06

Happy Pierrot
Picasso: "Pierrot Assis" (1918)
Cezanne: "Still Life with Compoties" (1879-80)
Gauguin: "Aha oe Feii?" (what! Are you jealous?) (1982)
Utrillo: "Eglise de Royan" (1939)

Picasso's Bohemian days at Montmartre were at an end when the First World War outbroke. In Summer of 1918 he married a Russian ballerina Olga Koklova, while he was involving in theater and ballet presentation.

This "Pierrot with a Mask" of 1918 reveals his nostagic years of the Blue Period with circus performance, yet is a serene and powerful portrait in white. The edges of the figures and the dress are being lit in strong red as by the electricity. To this white-clad-and-dress clown, T. F. Chen added Cezanne's " Still Life with compoties" in the front and hung Gauguin's "Aha OE Feii? (what! Are you Jealous?) and Utrillio's " Eglise de Royan" on the back ; another trinity of modern masters . Gauguin's rose, red and shadowy coloring resound the red, green and orange coloration on the apples, while the bluish white of the napkin and the white plate correspond harmoniously with the Pierrot's dressing and the cathedral facade in milky white on Utrillo's canvas.

This can be imagined as a picture of a happy collector who disguised himself as a clown amid his collection of modern masterpieces, or just that of a Pierrot who buy art after becoming famous and rich. What! Are you jealous? (by T. F. Chen)

L07

Happy Mme. Matisse
 Matisse: " Madame Matisse" (1913)
Cezanne: "Jug, Cloth, Fruits and Glass"
Hard Edge Painting a la Noland.

Matisse honored his wife by painting her portrait at different stages of her life, which became part of art history. This "Madame Matisse" of 1913, like the "Madame Matisse, portrait with a Green Stripe" of 1905, marks a representative aspect in his creative career well as a memorable moment for his wife.

In this "Bonjour Mme Matisse" by T. F. Chen, the originally flattened blue-green-gray toned, Mme Matisse with a masklike face and an orange stole sitting on a wicker chair is recreated here. But her elegant austere presence is enriched by the vigorously colored fruits, a piece of bread, a jug in front of her on the table. A bluish white napkin horizontally placed near Mme Matisse as the bridge between Cezanne and her. Behind, a sharp V shape in vivid colorbands a la Noland, an American painter , gives a fresh contrast to the rest of the canvas.

Mme Matisse collected not only French masterpieces but also some American paintings. Yes or no? (by T. F. Chen)

L08

Happy Mr. Vollard
Picasso: "Ambroise Vollard" (1910)
Cezanne: "Apples and Plate of Biscuits" (1879-82)
Matisse: "Red Odalisque" (1982)

In 1910 Picasso painted his three art leaders: Wilhelm Uhde, Ambroise Vollard and Daniel -Henry Kahnweiler, all in his newly developed "Synthetic Cubism". Among the three portraits, Vollard is the most successful and famous.

Referring to Cezanne's reduction of natural shapes to geometrical solids as well as inspired by the black African art etc., the evolution of Picasso's art peaked in his 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907), the key work for Modern painting. Picasso's deconstruction of the subject for the construction of a pictorial reality, in forms as well as in color, heralded a spring of modern art for the new century.

Painting gains its autonomous existence. Instead of reproducing an object, it becomes the object itself, instead of representing the Nature, it becomes Creature itself.

Contrary to the Fauvist work, the analytical Cubism explored by Picasso and Braque started from form and form alone while the color was reduced to minimum: black, white, yellow or brown.

In T. F. Chen's "Happy Mr. Vollard", Picasso's cubistic treatment of Vollard portrait is recreated with his commending high forehead, pensive eyebrows, straight nose and thin upper lip etc. Chen cut out his shoulders and body from Picasso's original panel and had him sit down before Cezanne's "Apples and Plate of Biscuits", while behind him on the wall hung a reclining woman by Matisse: "Red Odalique" of 1908. Hence a new trinity: Cezanne-Picasso-Matisse.

Cezanne was usually regarded as "Father of Modern Art." His treatment of form and color influenced both Cubist and Fauvists, Picasso and Matisse par excellence. In Chen's "Happy Mr. Vollard", Matisse's vivid color in the "Red Odalisque" resumes the coloration in Cezanne's apples and Picasso's solid geometrical form in Vollard's portrait reflects the solid rendering of Cezanne's apple. This is one example of the hidden richness in Chen's postmodern"Neo-Iconography". (by T. F. Chen)
L10 Imaginative Art Dealer (I)
Van Gogh: "Portrait of Pere Tanguy", 1887. Musee Rodin, Paris
Leger: La Grand Dejeuner", 1921. Museum of Modern Art, NY
Picasso: "Guitar, Bottle, and Fruit-Dish", 1921. Private Collection, Paris
Matisse: "Les Plumes Blanches", 1919. Minneapolis, Institute of Art
Van Gogh: "Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe", private collection
Bernard Buffet: "Rascasse et Broc Bleu", 1949

Pere Tanguy again leaps forth from Chen's conscious outpouring. Composed like a figure from Fernand Leger (1881-1955), who once called his handling of space and volume as tube-ism, Tanguy takes tea with two women from a cup that looks like a piece of machinery. In this case Tanguy represents a mystical art dealer who has under contract Van Gogh, Picasso, Leger, Matisse, and Bernard Buffet. [Tanguy represented Van Gogh; Daniel Kahnweiler had Picasso and Leger-and regretted all his life he did not have Matisse; Matisse belonged to Bernheim; and Buffet's work can be found with various dealers.]

Van Gogh is represented by the self-portrait in the upper left, Matisse by the woman wearing white feathers in the upper right, and Buffet by the figures on the white table top, lower right.( By Lawrence Jeppson )
L11 Imaginative Art Dealer (II)
Bonnard: "Dining Room on the Garden", 1934. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY
Van Gogh: "Portrait of Pere Tanguy", 1887. Musee Rodin, Paris
Chagall: "Song of Songs", 1957-66, Le Message Biblique de Marc Chagall, Nice, Musee National

This painting is saturated with visual richness. I speak of colors, put down in an overlapping labyrinth of dramatic hues, and icons of divers sorts.

In 1873 Julian Tanguy opened a small shop to sell artist's colors and occasional paintings, which either he took on consignment or in trade for materials. He befriended artists-Guillaumin, Pissaro, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Signac, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, and many others. His rebellious taste was advanced, he loved new visions, and he talked endlessly about art. He was as poor as the artists he served. Confessor and sounding board to them, he became known as Pere [father] Tanguy.

Vincent Van Gogh, perpetually impoverished, took up virtual residence in Tanguy's black shop, where he emptied the dealer's drawers for the tubes of paint he needed. During a period of high productivity Van Gogh could turn out three paintings a day, and the shop became so jammed with them that Tanguy would sell them off to a junk dealer for prices which didn't even recoup the cost of their paint.

Chen has selected Van Gogh's portrait of Pere Tanguy for this opulent manifestation of vision and humility. The physical food on the two fruit dishes is meager-only a few Bonnard apples-but the substance of the inner man is bounteous.

If Pere Tanguy could have witnessed the fantastic folkvisions of Chagall that Chen has given him, he would have been pleased. ( By Lawrence Jeppson )
L12 Imaginative Art Dealer (III)
Van Gogh: "Portrait of Pere Tanguy", 1887. Musee Rodin, Paris
Cezanne: "Self-portrait", 1879-85. Ruskin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
"Peaches and Pears", 1888-89. Ruskin Museum of Fine arts, Moscow
Gauguin: "Self-portrait", 1889. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

One afternoon Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) met for lunch in the little shop of Pere Tanguy, who took paintings from both artists. Inevitably the conversation turned to art, and Van Gogh, to illustrate his point of view, showed Cezanne what he was doing-landscapes, portraits, still lifes. Cezanne was a notoriously slow and methodical painter. Once after working on a portrait for a month he told the sitter, "At last I think I've got the cravat right." When in white heat Van Gogh could complete several dazzling canvases a day. Upon looking at the paintings, Cezanne said to Van Gogh, "Honestly, your painting is that of a mad man."

Might this portrait of Tanguy been among those discussed?

Chen has created another of his ironies by hanging on the back wall two self portraits: Cezanne and Gauguin. Although Cezanne and Van Gogh never understood each other, Gauguin and Van Gogh were close friends until the clash of personalities split them. All three artists were found by Tanguy.

Cezanne's peaches and pears provide a better bounty than Bonnard's fruit in the preceding picture. ( By Lawrence Jeppson )
L09

Made in Holland

( color etching )
L13

Happy Armond Roulin
Cezanne: "Still Life with Jug and Fruits," (1893-4), Private Collection
Van Gogh: "Portrait of Armond Roulin," (1888), Folkwang Museum, Essen
Picasso: "Woman Huddled on the Ground with a Child," (1906), Harvard University, Fogg Art Museum, Massachusetts

Passionate and solitary, Vincent van Gogh spent much of his time in Arles lonely and misunderstood. He lived at the Hotel Alcazar before he moved into the Yellow House, and the postman, Joseph Roulin, and his family were some of the only Arlesians that welcomed him. With a humble yet steady job, Joseph Roulin raised a family of five, all of which were portrayed by van Gogh, resulting in twenty-three portraits in oil.

Vincent painted five portraits of "La Berceuse," the postman's wife Augustine, three portraits of Baby Marcelle, two paintings of Augustine with baby, two protraits of the elder son Armond Roulin, two pportraits of the second son Camille Roulin, five portraits of Joseph Roulin, and another four drawing of his face.

In Vincen'ts "Portrait of Armond Roulin" (1888), the handsome youth sits self-confidently in a yellow coat and blue hat. T. F. Chen has placed him in front of a simple talbe with Cezanne's masterpiece of fruits and jug. On the wall behind Armond hangs a section of a Vietnamese antique door in a strong red color on the left, and Pablo Picasso's "Woman Huddled on the Ground with a Child" (1901) on the right. The three prime color, occupying three distinct areas, seem to interact in a kind of dialogue: red-yellow, and green colors of the fruits upon the table.

Sitting among such masterpiece and valuable antiques, Armond Roulin appears serious, as he tries on the role of an art dealer.
L14 Happy Postman

Among Van Gogh's portraits of his friend, the postman in Arles, " Joseph Roulin sitting in a Cane Chair" (1888) is the largest of them. In that painting, Vincent depicted the bearded, slim man in his blue official suit with golden buckles and embroidered hat.
The postman and his wife were among the only friends that Vincent had in Arles. They expressed a caring protectiveness towards the eccentric artist, and he deeply appreciated their kindness. Like Pere Tanguy, Vincent felt a close kinship with Joseph Roulin, and painted four portraits of the postman in the same Buddha-like posture that he had posed Tanguy in. They both appear faced fully towards us with a direct stare; Roulin with flowered wall paper as a backdrop, and Tanguy with Japanese prints behind him.

In Chen's presentation of " Happy Joseph Roulin," this "Socratic" republican sits behind an abundance of fruit upon a table from Paul Cezanne's " Still life with Curtain, Jug, and Compotier" (1893-4). Behind him, on the blue wall, are portions of two paintings: on the left, Henri Matisse's landscape, "path in the Bois de Boulogne" (1902) and on the right, Maurice Utrillo's "Rue Lepic a Montmartre"(1939). The red, green, and yellow fruits in the foreground light up the entire painting, contrasting with the different blues which extend beyond the canvas. The somber yellow-ochre frame together with Matisse's shadowy trees echo the earthly compotier upon the table ; while between them, poses the noble postman!

A narrow rectangular section of Utrillo's streetscape with its black frame and white buildings accentuates the picture and corresponds to the creamy-white tablecloth in the foreground, keeping the entire painting in balance. The 90 degree edges of the picture frames in the background also make an interesting and necessary contrast to the roundness of the fruits and jug upon the table as well as the soft curves of the postman's arms and shoulders. All of these contrasting elements produce a harmonious orchestration of balance.

Possessing more than twenty portraits of his whole family by Vincent Van Gogh, Joseph Roulin is more than happy to sit among masterpieces, as this artwork by Dr. T. F. Chen reveals. ( By T. F. and Julie Chen )
L15 Happy Art Lover

Inspired by the story about Pere Tanguy, Dr. T. F. Chen developed a series of paintings called "Happy Art Collectors." As a collector himself, Chen knows what a joy it is to own artworks, especially masterpieces. Art enriches the quality of our lives.

Julien (Pere) Tanguy owned an art supply shop in Montmartre. An old socialist, Tanguy had always sympathized with poor artists, and often accepted their works as payment for painting materials. His shop became a meeting place for avant-garde artists such as: Guillaumin, Pissaro, Renoir, Gauguin, Cezanne, Signac, Bernard, Toulouse-Lautrec, and others. So little by little, Pere Tanguy became an art collector and art dealer.

Moreover, "Pere Tanguy had become a kind of sage...very rebellious in his wisdom and very thoughtful in his rebelliousness. He espoused a doctrine of simple-minded love of the poor, fixing his ideals on a future filled with goodness and love."

In the winter of 1886, Vincent van Gogh forged a solid friendship with Pere Tanguy. Vincent painted a portrait of Tanguy, depicting him sitting in a room covered with Japanese prints, wearing a big planter's hat, and "symmetrically viewed from the front like a Buddha." Bernard praised the painting, remarking that "in it, Van Gogh expressed very well the contentedness, the stoicism, and the hearty self-confidence that Tanguy's upright character assured him."

Because of his kindness and generosity to the talented young artists he associated with, Pere Tanguy, at one time, became the only Parisian to own canvases by Cezanne, as well as Van Gogh.

Chen's "Happy Art Collector Series" is based on such real-life stories. Among these lucky people are the postman Joseph Roulin, the cafe-owner Mme. Ginoux, and the Arlesienne Mousume who often posed for Van Gogh. ( By T. F. and Julie Chen )
L16 One Beautiful Morning
Vermeer: "La Femme a la Cruche"
Gauguin: "Manao Tupapau, (Spirit of the Dead Watching)"
Degas: "Woman Leaning near a Vase"

This rich painting belongs to the "Happy Collectors Series." The Dutch lady from Vermeer stands as the central figure, covered almost entirely by the enormous bouquet of radiant, bursting flowers in the center of the painting. Even Degas' Parisienne, leaning over the table, seems elbowed out by the flowers to the corner. Above the Dutch lady, hangs Gauguin's "Manao Tupapu," depicting a spirit of the Dead watching over the lying young girl. The painting seems to extend its attention across the long night to the opening day, as the Dutch lady opens her window to welcome in the soft morning light.

The composition is rich and balanced and the color serene and symphonic. The red on the tablecloth ignites the scene like a cymbal kicking up an ocean of melodies. ( By T. F. and Julie Chen )
L17

Happy Age
Ingres: "Portrait of Mme Moitessier" (1856)
Gauguin: "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel" (1888)
Cezanne: "Peaches and Pears" (1888-90)

In this painting entitled "Happy Age", Dr. T. F. Chen combined Ingres's famous seated "Portrait of Madame Moitessier" with Gauguin's Brittany "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel" and a still life by Cezanne: "Peaches and Pears".

Ingres had painted two portraits of Mme Moitessier, a young wife of a rich merchant, one standing and one seated. Compared to the standing one which is austere and imperious, the seated one presents an opulent woman in her dress of white silk strewn with flowers and jewels, smiling and majestic. Mme Moitessier's shoulders, arms and face were treated to the satisfaction of Ingres in enamel-like technique of classical tradition and, coordinated marvelously with rich and luxurious patterns. It's a masterpiece depicting the high society of French Second Empire, "pompously serious and seriously ostentatious" (Robert Rosenblum), a happy age, or at least the happy illusion of a prosperous age.

In Chen's version, Mme Moitessier becomes not only a piece of artwork herself but an art collector-a reasonable assumption regarding her wealth. Behind her we see Gauguin's Biblical interpretation, and, in front of her, Cezanne's still life of peaches, pears, tablecloth, teapot, and jug which occupy one third of the canvas and reduce the appearance of her dazzling dress.

The strong red hue in Gauguin's painting on the background provides a sharp contrast against the awashing blue tone of the middle and fore grounds while the varied gradations of the white on the teapot, jug and tablecloth in Cezanne's still life correspond subtly the pink white skin and laces in the middle-ground and Gauguin's Brittany white caps on the background. Thus those three paintings enrich each other in a resounding interaction of colors and forms.

The collector of this "Happy Age" ought to be much happier that Mme Moitessier. N'est-ce pas? ( by T. F. Chen)
L18

Interior Pastoral
Vermeer: "Young Girl With A Flute"(c.1658-60)
Cezanne: "Still life with Olive Jar, Sugar Pot, Blue Rug and Apples"(1893-94)
Gauguin: "Tahitian Pastorals" (1893)

In this painting "Interior Pastoral" by T. F. Chen , Vermeer's young girl serves as a bridge to connect Cezanne's sumptuous content of a still life and the authentic view of Gauguin's Tahiti..

Sitting in front of the exotic landscape of an Oceanian Island, the young girl with an exotic hat seems to have lost her serenity and independence, to be integrated into the two worlds created by two masters of post-impressionism, Gauguin and Cezanne. Solid in geometrical forms and strong in color rendering, Cezanne's still life here manifests a robust life rejecting compromise.

Gauguin's existence here is equally accentuated, though depicting a lyric scene. His employment of brilliant red, yellow and green, highlighted in white and emphasized by the black lines, constructed a contrasting yet harmonious pastoral of a dreamy paradise. Yet with out the Vermeer's girl in the middle, these two worlds of Cezanne and Gauguin could not co-exist, even both immerge into the dimly lit interior.

The strong white collar of Vermeer's flutist under her partly lit face in the shadow of a stripped pyramid-like hat knit marvelously the upper and the lower parts of the canvas, to be united together, three of them, Gauguin, Vermeer and Cezanne, into an all embracing poetic Interior Paradise. (By T. F. Chen)
L19

Happy Dantelliere
Vermeer: "The Lacemaker" (c. 1669-1670)
Cezanne: "Still Life" (c. 1877)
Gauguin: "The Rest" (1897)

Vermeer's young lady concentrates at her lacemaking. She skillfully knots the lace while holding two bobbins in one hand. The deep blue cushion with white and red threads envigorizes the lady's yellow dress and the gold book.

In Chen's new version of lacemaking girl, Cezanne's fruits and cup are placed in front of her, while behind her hung a painting by Gauguin with the depiction of an amorous couple in rest--an exotic scene. The wall in sky blue creates a vivd contrast to the rest of the painting almost composed of warm color spectrum. The strong red and orange in the foreground passs through the red threads and the yellow dress in the middleground toward the upper background in soft gold and shadowy brown, thus suggests the depth and dustance in the painting.

It seems that the young lady--a happy young collector of two post-Impressionist artworks--is too concentrated in her job that she forget to take food in front of her. ( By T. F. Chen )