Post Van Gogh

Press Pictures

 「曼哈頓藝術」8周年封面刊登陳錦芳作品 法國教科書列陳錦芳的「看電視」為研究教材(吃馬鈴薯者)

(Left to right)Manhattan Art Magazine featuring TF Chen’s “Post Van Gogh Series” for their 8th anniversary issue / TF Chen’s artworks “Watching TV” and “Bon Soir Lisa” were featured in the French University level text book, Expressions.

 世界梵谷權威前荷蘭文化部長梵谷美術館館長-Dr.Jan Hulsker稱陳錦芳為「梵谷的傳人」邀我們至他家渡假-1  世界梵谷權威前荷蘭文化部長梵谷美術館館長-Dr.Jan Hulsker稱陳錦芳為「梵谷的傳人」邀我們至他家渡假-2

Dr. TF Chen with Dr. Jan Hulsker — a leading world authority on van Gogh, and former Director of Van Gogh Museum & Director-General of Cultural Affairs for the Netherlands. / Lucia Chen with Dr. Jan Hulsker and his wife, as they enjoy TF Chen’s art works through Chen’s catalogue / TF and Lucia Chen visiting at Dr. Jan Hulsker’s home.

1990-荷蘭皇家KLM邀請博士同步展後梵谷系列開幕酒會033- 余光中夫婦與陳錦芳夫婦合影 荷蘭藝文界歡迎陳氏夫婦展覽後梵谷系列

(Left to right) Dr. TF Chen was invited to exhibit a One Man Show during the Van Gogh Centennial in Amsterdam. / Famous Poet, Professor Yu and wife visit Dr. TF Chen’s “Post Van Gogh” show in Amsterdam.  / Mr. Smit — the head of Art and Cultural Society — and other members welcome TF and Lucia with a big flower basket at their Opening.

 「梵谷歸來」被編入在《梵谷的神話》一書  陳錦芳與侯幸君像梵谷致敬  陳錦芳侯幸君率梵谷高更向藝友們祝賀聖誕快樂

(Left to right) Dr. Chen’s work, “Vincent Coming Home” was featured in The Mythology of Vincent Van Gogh (publ by TV Asahi). It was the only painting that was not Van Gogh’s, that was featured as a full color, double page spread. / TF and Lucia in front of “Homage to Vincent Van Gogh.” / TF & Lucia join Masters Gauguin and Van Gogh to wish you Happy Holidays!

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December 22, 2016

Van Gogh’s Magic Guests by Lawrence Jeppson

Van Gogh’s Magic Guests by Lawrence Jeppson In 1886, Paul Gauguin settled sporadically in the village of Pont Aven, Western France, and gathered about him a […]
October 14, 2015

T.F. CHEN“Post Van Gogh Series”

T.F. CHENPost Van Gogh Series

Lucia Gallery ARTFORUM Nov 91 -Thomas McEvilley

75_TFChen&VanGogh T.F.Chen and Van Gogh

T.F. Chen was born and grew up in Taiwan's ancient capital city Tainan. He was educated in Paris, where he wrote a doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne in which he compared Eastern calligraphy with Western Modernist painting, arguing that the similarities between them foreshadowed the eventual convergence of East, West, and other zones into a universal culture.

For 16 years he has lived in the United States- lately in SoHo- practicing a conceptual mode of painting that shares considerable affinities with post-Modern pastiche. Third world artists often feel that post-Modernism is a peculiarly Western formulation- as Europeans often feel it is peculiarly American. Yet Chen's art seems genuinely to comprehend the issues the term post-Modern many Modernist artists in Taiwan, but that he is the only Taiwanese post-Modernist he knows of so far.

13561ed899227a9.pngChen's practice, of course, has resonances beyond or in addition to those of a Western appropriator. Chinese tradition has gone through something like the developmental cycles involved in European history at least a couple of times. With such a surfeit of history, Chen is more involved with such passionately dark obsessions as the death of the past. Chen's special preoccupation with Van Gogh along with Jackson 7561ed995c8efa.pngPollock- the quintessentially self-expressive examples of individualism in Modern art in the West- suggests an attempt to rearrange not just his work but his self. In both his life travels and in his art he has made himself a cross- or multicultural individual, to suggest the citizenry of an age to come- or at least one idea of what such a selfhood might be.

  This exhibition featured Chen's "Post-Van Gogh" series- a set of 100 oil paintings involving images borrowed from Van Gogh in a reconceived universal history in which all times and things psychedelically mingle. In one picture Vermeer works on a half-finished canvas of Van Gogh irises. In another, a Gauguin-style Polynesian nude lies wistfully above a scene where Cezanne's Boy in a Red Waistcoat, 1888-90, sits at table with his colors, sits by a table on which a Cezanne still life lies. Paintings by Matisse and others hang behind him.

Popular_06_VincentIsComingHomeVINCENT IS COMING HOME /44X66’’/ac/ IV-90 PIC5ANDY JUST LEFT/50X72’’/ac with collage/ IV-90
  Many works in the series feature Van Gogh's familiar rendering of his bedroom at Arles, visited by other artists, suggesting the universality of the artistic project. In one picture we see Joan Miro standing in Van Gogh's room, while works by Miro hang on the walls and lean against the bed. In another work, Picasso's harlequins sit on Van Gogh sits on Van Gogh's chair clutching his head while Munch's The Scream, 1893, takes place outside the window.The central works in the show, Homages to Van Gogh, 1, 2, and 3, all 1991, are triptychs based on Van Gogh self-portraits from the period 1887-89. In the central panel of Homage 2 a Van Gogh self-portrait is reproduced in each of nine color zones, referring both to Andy Warhol's multiple portraits and to the Indian and Chinese icons of infinite Buddhas reproduced identically in gridded rectangles. Western and Eastern ideas of selfhood are conflated in the morose yet serene Van Gogh/Buddhas.

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Homage to Vincent van Gogh (triptych)72X150’’/ ac/ II-V-91

  Chen learned about Western Modernism through Japanese art books, which he saw while in high school in Tainan. He says he wept with recognition when he saw the Van Goghs. Now the "Post-Van Gogh Series" is traveling to 18 defferent venues in Taiwan. Perhaps there will soon be other post-Modern artist there.

 

-Thomas McEvilley