After the Sunset#76005 183 X 127 cm ac
Using images from periods separated by nearly 500 years, Chen evokes the perpetual repetition of mankind’s greatest failure: war. The specific act that suggested the painting to Chen was the Nazi invasion of Norway. While Nazi officers were toasting the peace with Norwegian officers, German soldiers were invading Norway. So after the sunset came war. The thematic impact of the composition is in no way reduced by the fact that the conflict has been represented by post-World War II delta jets and German NATO troops.The Three Graces theme – Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia: Brilliance, Joy, and Bloom – has descended from early Greek art and from literature as early as Homer. Symbolizing beauty, music, peace, prosperity, they are almost patron spirits of the arts. Primavera “centers on the Neoplatonic equation Venus = Humanitas, symbolizing the ideal harmonious equilibrium of nature and civilization.” (Roberto Salvini.) Lionello Venturi referred to Botticelli’s style as lyric vision. “Primavera” is musical, its unity of composition created through a succession of images that are as measured beats in poetry. Chen has used only a portion of the Three Graces from Primavera, but he has achieved a musical beat through the progression of his horizontal color bands (picked up and accentuated by the colors of the airplanes, the yellow orb, and the red sky.) The vertical stripes beat too… emphasizing the recurrence of strife and making the entire canvas pulse.
– Lawrance Jeppson |
After the Sunset
World Family in Peace
2015 年 7 月 28 日