Feng Boyi

After experiencing countless ups and downs, and hesitations, Chinese contemporary art has become increasingly directed toward the artist's inner world, with a special focus on the nature of the existence of human beings. Often when painters use their paint brushes to represent real life, they will not be satisfied with the simple representation of existence, but will also intentionally aim to penetrate this representation of life, and in this way, sharply reflect their own psyche and finally create an image of their changing times. They adopt an individualized approach to expressing their own thoughts and questions toward their own realm and status of existence. These idiosyncratic feelings combined with their existential experience within their environment, constitute their world of individual discourse Chen Wenji's world is a series of still lives, regardless of whether his subject matter is the articles in his own home as reflected in his previous works, or the "landscape outside his windows" as reflected in his most recent paintings.

It is not easy to find a place for Chen Wenji's works of "individual discourse" within the historical context of the development of Chinese oil painting since 1949. Some people would describe Chen Wenji as an avant-garde oil painter. If "avant-garde" is defined as a rejection of the classical and a rebellion against traditional art, the definition is still quite subjective, and may be inadequate at the same time. If the "avant-garde" means the post-modernism that has prevailed in China since the "New Art Movement of 1985" until today, Chen Wenji's art exists on the edge of this Chinese post-modernism. In addition, Chen Wenji's creative expression includes an internalized humanistic element. Chen Wenji's oil paintings express a desire to return to our creative origins; to the artist's relationship between his creative origins and his very existence. Compared with modernism, Chen Wenji is quite humanistic; compared with post-modernism, Chen refuses the allure of commercialization and cultural trends, as well as meaningless creative activity. Compared with realism, he is able to express his internal world and refuses merely to duplicate the patterns of real life scenes. Chen Wenji in fact, is an artist who appears ill at ease adapting to prevailing creative models. Therefore, in view of Chen Wenji's unique form of expression, it is quite natural for us to be drawn to the meaning and significance of his art.

Chen Wenji describes his personality as constantly changing. Often times, at finding the slightest dissatisfaction with a painting, Chen will scrap the work in progress and start all over again. And if he should have a new idea, he may immediately discard the painting on which he is currently working. Despite these sudden changes of mind, Chen Wenji succeeds in expressing his own feelings, through his painterly manipulation of subject and space. Chen Wenji directs universal feelings of real and imagined disturbances and helplessness towards ordinary and natural still life subjects. He does not need to directly represent human subjects in his works, in order to disentangle the entangled relations between men and between men and society. Instead, Chen uses classical still-life painting techniques in order to calmly and rationally express the effect these tangled relations have on the artist. However, these natural and inferior still life subjects constitute our existential reality, a reality which is often ignored consciously or unconsciously, despite the internalized links this reality has with the lives and the cultural situation of contemporary Chinese people. Such quotidian nature and currency serves a function and has an impact on this land of China, which envelopes the psychological feelings of the people. Through his unique surface techniques, we are able to see clearly that Chen Wenji opposes the loss of humanism and the decline of culture. While Chen himself says that he emphasizes the touch of his brush in the composition of each still life object, the inevitable effect for the viewer is an extraordinary interpretation of the social significance and cultural value of a simple landscape or still life work. Perhaps it is by this misunderstanding between the viewer's perception and Chen's own singular focus on the composition of each still life or landscape subject, that Chen's artworks have been able to obtain significant cultural and social resonance. If the viewers find a social and cultural significance in his works, Chen himself will not raise any opposition.

Generally speaking, we can think of the act of painting as an act of existential self inquiry into the human spirit, and at the same time, we can also think of the act of painting as an act which requires critical intelligence. Chen Wenji describes his series of "still lives" and "landscapes" as the ideal medium for his self-expression, and also his best means of utilizing his academic skills and artistic creation of forms. In his artistic expression, Chen often takes a distanced approach from his subject, and will only draw near to his subject with great caution. Chen's surrealistic placement of his subject amidst an unreal space and environment may at the same time repel and attract the viewer. While his subjects are familiar to all people, when Chen renders these subjects in such surreal locations and spaces it is as though we are seeing these once familiar subjects for the first time. Chen Wenji seems to be a delicate master of a special type of expression, which actually gives the viewers an oppressive feeling. At the same time, his works give the viewer a sense of cultural and societal context which is at once familiar but also difficult to articulate, thereby reflecting his own character and wisdom and the process of his creative frame of mind. According to Chen Wenji's own words, the creative process and his state of mind during that process are the most important, while the outcome is not as important. Perhaps this is the logic of personal expression to which Chen has become accustomed, and also the very personal means by which he gazes at the landscape from the windows of his own home.

Through his own particular logic and artistic method, the viewer sees Chen's consistently humanistic approach to life, while at the same time, his means of expressing such an approach remain flexible and open. To be more exact, as an oil painter using traditional techniques to interpret the modern spirit, Chen Wenji has opened another channel to understanding the "subject". As the painter himself said, "I am more aware of respecting my personal feelings, which feelings are not interrupted even in the course of my painting, despite my absorbing new feelings at every minute". It seems that such a statement has little relation to the actual methods of painting, and makes one wonder why painters of each generation are so enthusiastic about the achievements made by old masters, and at the same time so obsessed with their own self-discovery. Notwithstanding this question, one point is very important; that is the complicated inner world of the artist, which, like an invisible net, is ask to capture many striking works out of such genuine feelings. We look forward to the next solo exhibition of Chen Wenji.

Chen Wenji
"Lost on the Way"
1997
135 x 100 cm
Oil Painting, Linen Cloth

Chen Wenji
"Story of Light"
1998
170 x 140 cm
Oil Painting Linen Cloth

Chen Wenji
"Fading Light"
1997
135 x 100 cm
Oil Painting, Linen Cloth

Chen Wenji
"Perspective (I)"
1997
195 x 195 cm
Oil Painting, Linen Cloth

Chen Wenji
"Weak Breath"
1997
100 x 140 cm
Oil Painting, Linen Cloth

Chen Wenji
"Big Chimney"
1999
140 x 200 cm
Oil Painting, Linen Cloth

Chen Wenji
"Keeping the Light"
1999
140 x 140 cm
Oil Painting, Linen Cloth

Chen Wenji
"Silent Waiting"
1999
140 x 140 cm
Oil Painting, Linen Cloth

Chen Wenji
"Endless"
1999
140 x 140 cm
Oil Painting, Linen Cloth