Royal Kiss

#97012     32″x24″     giclee on canvas

Prompted by the crowd, the newly-weds exchange their first public kiss on the balcony of Buckingham palace on July 29th, 1981. With 750 million television viewers and 600,000 well-wishers crowded live in London as witnesses, the climax of this century’s greatest Cinderella story was taken by the camera and broadcasted to the entire globe.

This intimate scene between Diana and Charles was one of the most joyful moments for Englad as well as the world. It was a storybook romance come true-“a fresh young girl who found her prince, and a nation found its princess. After a brief courtship, a glorious wedding day was the culmination of all their hopes.”

No matter what happened afterward, in most almanacs, the “gentle kiss” etched the happiest image of the ’80s: Prince Charles in his naval best and Princess Diana in her fantastic creation spun out of antique lace.

In the “Princess Diana Series,” Dr. Chen integrates Diana’s legend into art history. Marc Chagall, one of the greatest artists of our century, is famous for his fantastic imagery, romantic coloration, and dreamy imagination. With his unique combination of surrealism, rich and expressive colors, fragments of childish memory, and love for the decorative and theatrical, Marc Chagall has created a lyrical, legendary world of surpassing beauty in art history. The British Royal Family’s “Wedding of the Century” seems a fitting match then, for Chagall’s masterful creativity.

In this artwork, Dr. Chen selected one of Chagall’s masterpieces, “The Woman With the Blue Face” (1932-60), for the background of the happening, along with images of the couple rising in the sky, flowers, a red horse, a clown playing a flute, and other fanciful images. To commemorate this joyful and spectacular “royal kiss” of the century, Dr. Chen also added the silhouette of London’s Parliament Building, the Eiffel Tower, a bridge crossing the Seine with buildings ashore, and a red sun. Chen’s combination of real life scenes with historical art images manifests a “post-modern” enrichment of imagination and interpretation in culture.

by T. F. and Julie Chen