Chen Danqing 陈丹青

From ArtSpeak China (ASC) Wiki

Chen Danqing is a Chinese artist whose series of paintings about Tibetans earned him instant fame as a leading Realist in the 1980s. Born in 1953, Chen lives and works in Shanghai.

Contents 1 Date and Place of Birth 2 Education and Development 3 Art 4 Secondary Activities 5 Exhibitions 6 Auctions & Acquisitions 7 References

Date and Place of Birth

Chen was born in 1953 in Shanghai, China.

Education and Development

Between 1970 and 1978 Chen went to live in a series of rural villages like Gan Nan and North Jiangsu. He taught himself how to paint and in 1978 was admitted to a research course in the Department of Oil Painting at Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1980 he graduated and stayed on to teach, before traveling to New York in 1982.  He returned to Beijing in 2000, where he teaches and writes in addition to painting.^[1]  

Art

In the early 1980s, Chen painted in the Socialist Realist style, and was at one stage described by the government as the most talented oil painter in China.^[2] But beginning with his series of paintings about Tibetans in the mid-1980s, Chen broke away from the manners of officialdom.^[3] Influenced by French Realist Jean-Francois Millet, his Tibetans series in turn had a tremendous influence on the emerging Native Soil Painting movement. This new work departed from the monumental size of his earlier Socialist Realist painting in favour of the intimate style and scale of the nineteenth-century French naturalists. He portrayed the Tibetans in a dignified, forthright way, avoiding the patronizing depictions of ethnic minorities common at the time.^[4]

Chen's later work has retained the sharp, realistic qualities of the Tibetan series, and has often focused on portrayals of young women.^[5]

Secondary Activities

In addition to painting, Chen is an essay writer, teacher and scholar.  He taught at Beijing's Tsinghua University until 2005, at which time he resigned his position due to his disagreement with non-arts-related prerequisites to graduation from the arts programs, including English language exams.^[6]  

Exhibitions

An important exhibition in the development of Chen's Tibetans series was Chen Danqing: Painting after Tiananmen of 1995.

For Chen's full exhibition record, click here.

Auctions & Acquisitions

For Chen's auction record, click here.

References

http://art.china.cn/mjda/2009-03/16/content_2791314.htm

http://www.people.com.cn/GB/news/37146/45767/3273116.html

1. ↑ http://new.artzinechina.com/display_vol_aid328_en.html
2. ↑ http://baike.baidu.com/view/16269.htm
3. ↑ http://news.artron.net/show_news.php?newid=81890
4. ↑ http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/chen-danqing-tf/
5. ↑ http://new.artzinechina.com/display_vol_aid328_en.html
6. ↑ http://www.china.org.cn/english/NM-e/179788.htm