Refreshing And Magnificent—Impression On Chen Yufeng’S Paintings
Chen Yufeng was born in 1943 in Hui’an, Fujian. He graduated from Fujian College of Art in 1964. He is Director of Chinese Artists Association, President of Fujian Artists Association and a national Class A artist and an expert who is granted special subsidy by State Council. The grow and orientation of an artist are determined naturally by time and space and other factors. In the summer of 1987, Fujian Artists Association, Fujian Daily and Fujian TV jointly organized a sketching tour of 26 persons along Min River. The tour began from the sour and ended at the estuary, lasting for 40 days. During daytime, the artists sketched on the shore while at nighttime they slept on board; at breaks they sang or danced. The journey was hard yet the 26 artists were quite united and active. All immersed themselves in the beautiful, extensive and vigorous mountains and rivers. That’s an art practice they would never forget for lifetime. Yufeng was the team leader. During this event, he showed his great capability in organization. As the journey was over, although the 26 artists were separated and got busy with their own businesses, they are still as close as brothers when they meet again. Some of them even turned from oil painters and figure painters to landscape painters. Through the baptism of nature, all were enlightened. No wonder, landscape painting has been dominant in the history of Chinese painting.
Chen Yufeng is an talented artist. He used to involve in various paintings like oil painting, lacquer painting, print painting and comics Chinese painting and made many achievements. He fell in love with mountain-and river painting like fallen leaves returning to the roots. His worship of the tradition is not a blind following but driven by spontaneous national spirit. The “1985 New Wave” and the argument of “Dead End of Chinese Painting” used to confuse a lot of artists. However, Chen Yufeng stepped firmly into the palace of art to seek for the essence of art. He practiced from basic skills and traveled tens of thousands of miles to study from the nature. He absorbed the vigorousness of North School and the elegance of South School, and studied from the paintings from ancient Song and Yuan dynasties to modern times.
Yufeng was born at the seaside of Hui’an, Fujian province. Hui’an people are well know for their industrious, simple and honest qualities. The good qualities are integrated into his painting style. The rigorousness, magnificence and profoundness all derive from his meticulous and unhurried brushwork. Yufeng’s mountain-and-river painting is like a strong man from the seaside who conceals great vitality and masculine beauty of the age in his strong body.
What’s commendable is that he keeps productive in his spare time of his busy work at Chinese Artists Association and Fujian Artists Association. To better master the essence of painting and calligraphy sharing the same origin, he has been writing letters and reports in small regular script with Chinese brush for a long time. His profound skill in Tang-style regular script is rare in the art circle. He seems to over-restrain himself while pursuing for rigorousness in his mountain-and-river painting; but he is balancing between free and restrained brushwork. In his figure and bird-and-flower painting, he applies the techniques of calligraphy. The brushwork flies freely and is very sophisticated and vigorous. Yufeng studies the tradition diligently and pays attention to life experience. He integrates his feelings into the painting and strives to turn all Western painting techniques and various painting forms that he practiced in the past into his own. We wish him have a bright future in the his painting career.