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June 4, 2015

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Late artist commemorated

Chen Zhen, a Shanghai artist and sculptor who died in Paris in 2000 of leukemia at age 45, retains a very special place in the art heritage of Shanghai.

The Rockbund Art Museum in the city is celebrating its 5th anniversary with a retrospective called “Chen Zhen: Without going to New York and Paris, life could be internationalized.”

Chen studied at the Shanghai Theater Academy and the Shanghai Fine Arts School. He became a major figure in the Shanghai contemporary art scene during the 1980s. During that period, his art explored the connections among spirituality, life and the Chinese philosophical view of the universe.

He emigrated to Paris in 1986, where he studied at l’Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts. It was in France that he rose to prominence in the West. He had a solo exhibition in Paris in 1990 and went on to stage exhibitions in Europe, Asia and North America.

The current retrospective in Shanghai has been mounted by museum curator Hou Hanru, with assistance from Xu Min, a longtime association of Chen’s. The exhibition features many of his larger works as well as sketches and notes.

Chen’s oeuvre is now viewed as an expression of personal experience fused with the cultural influences of the different countries where he worked.

The three major periods that had the greatest influence on him were the cultural revolution (1966-76), China’s domestic economic reforms and this nation’s engagement with the West. His work focuses on the relationships of human beings and nature. He was also interested in architecture and urbanization on a global scale.

In 1995, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, Chen created “Round Table” — a work that elegantly embodies the ideals of all humanity. He sought to show that through exchange, dialogue, negotiation and accommodation, people can dispel conflicts and misunderstandings, and embrace equality for all.

Chen was fond of the saying that Chinese culture always retains its “genes.” He was extremely careful to observe and record details of life in Shanghai, finding artistic significance in the smallest of everyday objects.

This exhibition focuses on Chen’s travels in and out of Shanghai during the 1990s, reflecting on the rapid changes affecting the city at that time. Works such as “Le Bureau de Change” and “Daily Incantations” reveal his interest in Shanghai’s urban and socio-economic development. “Daily Incantations” won at prize in South Korea in 1997.

The exhibition reveals his keen interest in the human condition as it responds to an ever changing environment. That insight can be seen in the delicate alabaster and crystal sculptures of “Zen Garden” and “Crystal Landscape of Inner Body.”

The museum in its notes on the exhibition said Chen’s work generates a “resonance and dynamic dialogue within the context of Shanghai, both a Chinese and a global city.”

Using a range of new and recycled materials, Chen created many works built around ordinary objects. Alongside Chinese chamber pots and coins, Chen melded new technologies and digital media, marrying cultural heritage with contemporary innovation in order to create a synergy reflective of the contemporary world.

“Chen is an indelible name in contemporary art, whether in the West or East,” said art critic Zhang Qing. “In his mind, art could heal the human spirit, and once healed, that spirit could implement the ideals of a harmonious society.”

In the course of his career, Chen received various international awards, and showed his work in about 100 solo and group exhibitions around the world, becoming a prominent figure on the international art scene.

As leukemia took over his body, Chen took a keen new interest in medicine and did research on cures. He consulted his father and his brother, who were both doctors, but his efforts proved in vain.

At the time of his death, Chen was working on a public sculpture for the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris.

“I believe that the talent and charisma that radiate from the artist and his artworks are permanent,” Zhang said. “There is no one like him and nor any art like his.”

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