PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, Asia

Born to a family of scholars in Zhenhai, Province of Zhejiang, in 1946, Chen Yifei demonstrated strong interests in religious painting, sculpture and the pipe organ while he was young. He graduated from Shanghai Fine Arts School in 1965 and was later recruited into Shanghai Oil Painting Sculpture Institute as principal of oil painting. In 1980, Chen traveled to the U.S. for further studies in art, and obtained an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) four years later. In 1984, Chen created Memory of Hometown, an oil painting that depicts the renowned Twin Bridges of Zhouzhuang and which was later exhibited in a New York gallery owned by Armand Hammer, chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, along with 37 other oil canvasses. Hammer purchased Memory of Hometown afterwards and presented it to Deng Xiaoping as a symbol of friendship, cooperation and peace between the U.S. and China as embodied by the Twin Bridges. In 1985, it was chosen as the first-day cover of the United Nation postage stamp. Since then, a growing group of international connoisseurs have come to know the graceful beauty and rural simplicity of Zhouzhuang old town.

As one of the first privately-financed Chinese students to have studied in the U.S., Chen was able to pursue his master’s degree in art at Hunter College, New York. Choosing to major in oil painting, he specialized in portraits and earned a living by repairing and selling paintings in his spare hours. During his time in the U.S., Yang Mingyi sent photographs he had taken of Zhouzhuang to Chen by mail, and advised him to draw inspiration from this poetic river town. In the spring of 1984, Chen flew to Zhouzhuang for sketches. At that time, the highway from Kunshan to Zhouzhuang was not yet completed and the only entryway into the town was by water, so Chen rented a boat that carried him via Chenmu to the town of Zhouzhuang. This is indeed a place of otherworldly beauty, more ethereal than I could ever imagine, exclaimed Chen on his first ever visit to Zhouzhuang. Owing to the very short period of stay he could afford, Chen was unable to complete sketches of all the scenes he admired, which was why he had resort to the most convenient way to capture its beauty–photography. Under Chen’s magical brushstrokes, photographic images of Zhouzhuang in black and white transformed into dreamy water town of vivid, resplendent color. Not only did he triumph at his first exhibition featuring the scenery of Zhouzhuang, he also developed a curious, inexplicable sense of intimate familiarity towards the previously unknown river town.

Chen created numerous oil paintings that depict the landscapes of Zhouzhuang with realist techniques that faithfully represent the exquisite charm of this idyllic water town on the southern banks of Yangtze River. One of these painting, featuring the famed Twin Bridges and titled Memory of Hometown, reveals how the artist, who lived far from his homeland, exhibited his profound attachment to the motherland through each gentle brushstroke.

Chen Yifei’s Water Town collection may be divided into two different distinct styles: one brilliantly resplendent, opulent and magnificent, while the other features muted tranquility and hints of sorrow. Each of those pieces captures and suspends a lonesome moment of stillness and serenity. Accompanied by verdant trees, aged houses and rippling waves, a touch of sunlit warmth climbs dyes the white walls and shipboard golden yellow, a slight touch of passionate emotion that sets off the quiet and seclusion of the artistic conception. The bridge, moreover, is a theme that best reflects the temperament of a water town with landscapes formed by bridges, water and houses. On clear waters and between the shades of lush trees, a small boat glides under the bridge. On the bridge an old man takes a moment of respite while underneath it a peasant woman washing her laundry, a scene of perfect harmony and humble pleasures and a beautiful sight that has been preserved by the artist for eternity. Such spirited and steady touches, converging at certain moments while liberating in others, create billowing waves upon the canvas. The textures are calming and smooth, yet at times distressed and blemished, reminiscent of the artist’s vague, dreamy nostalgia of Yangtze riverside sceneries. The frequently depicted Twin Bridges, located in the northeast of the town, are comprised of a stone arch bridge and a stone beam bridge at the confluence of Yinzi Creek and Nanbai River. The stone bridges, arching over clear sparkling waters, were built in close proximity, forming a delicate interlocking structure. One spanning horizontally and the other vertically, decks decorated with openings one square and one round, the two bridges resemble the shape of an ancient key, which is why they are also called the “Key Bridges.”

Zhou Village exhibits the serenity and ephemerality of water town landscapes. The warm tones enable viewers to perceive the remote antiquity of the rocks lying by the river bank, while the graceful ambiance of this water town is displayed through the gradient shades of blue reflected upon the latticed windows. It is a great enjoyment to stand in front of Chen’s water town landscape paintings. As one’s vision travels between one landscape and another, one seems to comprehend the underlying meaning of the romantic stories that have been captured in these poetic sceneries. Such a pursuit in the golden sunset is a lonesome endeavor, as the roving wooden boat and the singing of the boatmen form a heartwarming scene of joyful homecoming. In the flowing water and in the sunlit radiance, there appear to be colors rendered in cooler tones while the songs of the boatmen seem to hover and resonate. Waves ripple, one layer after another, touching the river banks and surging back again, while the depiction of the empty pier and mossy steps is remarkable in detail and delicacy. In these paintings that depict his homeland, Chen vividly represents the bridges, waters and rural landscape of southern China with masterful techniques in oil painting and traditional Chinese ink wash.

Chen was very subtle and meticulous during this period of his artistic career. To create these elegant and placid landscapes, the artist adopted the sfumato technique to fully achieve the evolving gradation of color throughout his canvas, a technique that perfectly mirrors the delicacy and haziness of a dewy water town. His simple choices of color emphasize the contrast between light and dark. The interventions, contrasts, meeting and parting of dots, lines and dimensions, moreover, are rich in traditional Chinese artistic sentiments and charms, quite possibly a projection of the artist’s nostalgia for his faraway home. Among many of the Water Town canvasses, this piece features one of Chen’s most classical compositions. Under his casual but still well-regulated strokes, the canvas is enveloped in tender tones of yellow and green that imbue liveliness and vibrant growth, distinctly unique in comparison with other works of nostalgic sentiment. Such a sentiment stems from not only Chen’s attachment to his birthplace but also his pursuit of cultural roots.

Chen Yifei’s Water Town collection also includes Old Bridge (1983), The Place Where I Played as a Child (1984), and The Silent Canal (1985). In the presence of Chen’s landscape paintings, we feel a sense of extraordinary calm and enchantment that enables our thoughts to wander toward a kind of otherworldly tranquility. Submerged in this absolute serenity, we begin to feel the powerful influences of strong exotic sensuality and mysterious Oriental atmosphere. This is a subjective and romanticized water town in southern China, a figurative place built upon the imagination, understanding and desire that the West has formulated of the East, a typical perspective of Orientalism. It allows people of the West to envision a quaint, mysterious world of the East, an Orient that is different from the West but still subject to their understanding, imagination, and interpretation.