Nanjing E. Rd. Welcoming Shanghai Expo

194 X 130 cm     ac     2010/4/29

Nanjing Road, starting at the Bund, is the most lively, crowded and picturesque street in Shanghai, especially the pedestrian walkway. Here, tourists from all over China as well as foreigners from every continent come to gather and stroll upon the joyful street. Now as the World Expo takes place in Shanghai, one can experience an atmosphere of friendship and world family stirring around at this opportune space and time.

The Neo-Iconography of Dr. T.F. Chen —— an art style combining icons of human civilization for artistic creation with message and meaning is very suitable for expressing this situation.In this painting, we discover Van Gogh’s Night Café and Picasso’s Three Musicians on the left hand side while on the right, are the buildings of Shanghai, century-old landmark shops and department stores with bright and quivering neon-lights. A big “Haibao” stands in front, welcoming tourists from all over the world, while an illuminated silhouette of the “Red Crown Gate” of the Expo floats in the sky.

There will be more than 20,000 performances during the Expo, which is symbolized by the Three Musicians. Such kind of quotation for suggestion in interpretation is one of the creative proceedings of Chen’s Neo-Iconography an interesting form of Post-Modern expression that recycles images-icons to create new meanings.