Still Life – Flowers
Chen Yifei
1996
- YEAR:1996
- MEDIUM:Oil on canvas
- DIMENSIONS:200 x 200 cm
Introduction
Chen Yifei was among the first contemporary Chinese artists to achieve major success in the Western art world. Shaped by a dual education in socialist realism and Western art, he developed a distinctive artistic language. Still Life – Flowers is the only flower-themed work in Chen’s career and was subsequently featured in important retrospectives at the Shanghai Museum, the National Art Museum of China, and other major venues. Created on the eve of these exhibitions, and shortly after the release of two films he directed, the work fuses the artist’s mature painterly techniques with cinematic close-up perspectives and hazy, atmospheric light. Heavy, swirling brushstrokes layer brilliant colors upon one another, while the monumental scale disrupts conventional perceptions of floral still life, evoking a sense of timeless romance and vibrant vitality.
