Young Matisse Discovering Tiantan

#06011     102 X 76 cm     oc     2006

Part of the charm of Dr. Chen’s Neo-Iconography, are the assumptive scenarios which he manifests on canvas. Here, we see Dr. Chen has imaginatively brought Matisse to Beijing in 1905, where the Fauvist master paints the Temple of Heaven from his window. In fact, the lavish, extravagant green-blues, golds and reds of Tiantan are very similar to Matisse’s own wild coloring of the Open Window… Indeed, the brilliant colors on Oriental temples seem very fitting to the Fauvist palette.